May 31—A Chimayó man charged in the 2020 death of his infant son pleaded guilty this week to a lesser child abuse charge that exposes him to up to three years of incarceration.

Under the plea agreement 26-year-old Steven Richard Serrano accepted Thursday, he also can argue for a conditional discharge and a probated, or suspended, sentence. His sentencing date has not yet been set.

Serrano’s original charge, intentional child abuse resulting in death, was a first-degree felony count that carried a potential life sentence. He pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony, “child abuse recklessly caused not resulting in great bodily harm or death.”

Law enforcement charged both Serrano and the child’s mother, Athena Savell, 23, after arriving at their home to find Serrano performing CPR on their 1-month-old son, Steven Richard Serrano III, who was unresponsive and not breathing.

The couple initially told Rio Arriba County sheriff’s deputies the elder Serrano had put the baby in his crib and dozed off himself and then awoke to find the child unresponsive, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. The baby also had bruising around his face and neck, the affidavit states.

Serrano later confessed to placing a pillow over his son’s face before he fell asleep, according to the affidavit.

An arrest warrant affidavit for Savell says Serrano told an officer he didn’t mean to suffocate the child but placed the pillow over the baby’s head because his own head was “pounding.”

Serrano admitted he put the pillow over the baby to “muffle the sound,” but said, “I didn’t mean for that to happen, bro, it’s not a heavy pillow at all,” according to the affidavit.

The First Judicial District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charge against Savell without prejudice in 2021, which means it could be filed again. Attempts to contact Savell were unsuccessful Friday.

“This case involves a death, and State ethically must do further investigation prior to making decision to indict or not,” Assistant District Attorney Richard Wilson wrote in the dismissal document. “There are outstanding documents which need to be collected and then reviewed,” he added.

Another of Savell’s children, also an infant, died at home in 2022, according to a report in the Rio Grande Sun, but it appears she wasn’t charged in that case.

Serrano’s public defender, Mary McCleary, declined to comment on his case in an email sent by a spokeswoman. She cited his pending sentencing.

It was not clear Friday why prosecutors agreed to a deal calling for Serrano to plead guilty to a substantially lower crime than he faced initially.

“Deputy District Attorney Haley Murphy secured a guilty admission to a felony child abuse charge via a plea agreement in this matter to ensure that the defendant will be held accountable for provable acts related to this tragedy, ” District Attorney’s Office spokesman Nathan Lederman wrote in an email Friday.

“After extensive litigation of complex legal and medical issues, the [First Judicial District attorney’s] decision to move forward with the aforementioned agreement was influenced by an assessment of admissible evidence, consultation with experts in the field of child abuse, and relevant circumstances outside of the incident itself (pertaining to the second infant death mentioned in your follow-up inquiry),” he wrote.

“While Athena Savell was initially charged … investigators found no evidence that she participated in any of Serrano’s alleged offenses,” Lederman added.

Law enforcement did not forward criminal charges to the District Attorney’s Office in connection with the death of the second child, according to Lederman.

The Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a call seeking comment for this story Friday.