By Matthew Monks
Juan Batista, 28, of 35-28 99th St., faces a prison sentence of 22 years to life for the gruesome July 2003 murder, Brown said. “(He) has admitted his guilt, waived his right to appeal and acknowledged that he was responsible for his son's murder,” Brown said in a statement, adding that the sentence expected to be imposed when Batista next appears in Queens Criminal Court on April 13 “is more than warranted by what was a shocking and terrible crime.” Tiny Omar Arias was found hanging from a curtain rod in the Crown Motor Inn at 74-01 Queens Blvd. at 1:35 a.m. on July 26, 2003 Brown said. Officers rushed to the room after Batista told a night desk clerk at the hotel to call police because he had killed somebody, police said at the time. Emergency responders were unable to revive the child and took the body to Elmhurst General Hospital for evaluation. Batista was charged with murder and placed under psychiatric observation, police said. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Monday. Batista and the boy's mother, Alexandra Arias, of New Britain, Conn., had a fight the day before the murder after Batista saw his ex-wife with another man, the Timesledger reported in 2003. Arias left her son in Batista's care earlier that day at the house of the man's mother in Corona. The two had been separated for a year and shared custody of the child. After the fight, Batista stormed out of his mother's house with his son, telling his sister he would be back in 10 minutes. He never returned, the Timesledger reported. Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
