Parents accused of killing their 3-month-old boy

Following his premature birth in December, the baby boy weighed under 2 pounds, had “heart problems,” apnea and required a feeding tube, his parents told Las Vegas police.

Miles Stano III was eventually released from University Medical Center in March. But exactly a month later, the baby was dead from a broken skull, and had extensive bruising on his head and some cuts, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, which accused his parents of killing the 3-month-old.

A Clark County coroner’s office examiner said the baby must have been hit with a hard object, against a hard object, or had his head stomped, according to the parents’ arrest report.

Miles Stano Jr., 28, and Lindsey Bello, 22, were jailed April 27 on counts of murder and child abuse following their son’s April 1 death.

Police cited the parents’ alleged strange behavior after they were told the boy had been killed by someone, inconclusive and deceptive polygraph test results, and the fact that they were the only people whose care the boy was under around the time of his death, according to their arrest reports.

In multiple interviews with homicide detectives, the parents denied knowing how Miles was injured or by whom, the report said.

Bello told detectives that, before their last interview the day of the arrest, they had agreed to being a “united front” so that neither “would get in trouble” with the police, according to the report.

Bello summoned first responders about 12:45 p.m. to their home on the 500 block of North 15th Street, near Bonanza Road.

She said that she went to check on her sleeping baby and that he was not breathing and cold to the touch, police said. The boy died at the residence.

She told detectives she fed him about 6 a.m. and that he went back to sleep, police said. He was still breathing about 10 a.m., she said.

But when she checked on him again nearly three hours later, he was “unresponsive,” she told police.

The medical examiner told detectives that the injuries the baby suffered tend to cause immediate death, police said.

Police secured a mattress pad they found in a dumpster, a bloodied wipe and swabs, Bello’s sweatpants that had apparent blood stains and the baby’s pajama pants, the report said.

The couple remained jailed without the possibility of bail, Las Vegas Justice Court logs show. They are next due in court Tuesday.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.