A Cascade County District Judge in Montana on Tuesday handed down the maximum sentences for the three people involved in the beating death of 5-year-old Antonio “Tony” Renova in November 2019.
34-year-old Stephanie Grace Byington and 33-year-old Emilio Emmanuel Renova Sr. were the child’s parents. 25-year-old Racso James Birdtail was a friend who was staying with the couple at the time of the murder.
Judge Elizabeth Best gave Renova 100 years in prison without the possibility of parole for deliberate homicide.
She gave Byington 100 years for accountability to deliberate homicide with no parole for 30 years. On the count of criminal child endangerment, Byington received 10 years to run consecutively to her time in the other crime.
Best gave Birdtail five years for accountability to assault on a minor and 10 years for evidence tampering. Those two sentences will run consecutively.
Best said she recognized the impact this murder has had on Tony’s family, law enforcement, prosecutors and the community.
“No one is untouched. Everyone sees his or her children in this,” she said.
Despite the trauma the defendants had been through in their lives, Best said nothing can excuse the crime against Tony. The two most responsible for Tony’s murder were his parents, Best said. She said instead of nurturing him, they tortured, battered, degraded and starved him as part of a pattern of abuse leading up to his death.
She said Birdtail did more than just ignore or walk away from the abuse — he instead encouraged it and then tried to protect the murderers.
“It was a systematic, deliberate, constant and inevitable death…The death imposed by two of these defendants on this boy was the heaviest punishment any human being, let alone a child, should be expected to endure, and in the end, Tony could not endure it.
“These parents, whose duty was only to protect, love and care for him, were instead his tormenters and murderers. Only the heaviest punishment for them is appropriate.”
Tony’s aunt and grandfather spoke to the court, both asking that Renova and Birdtail receive the death penalty or life without parole for the murder.
“I want to be the bigger person and forgive them both (Renova and Birdtail),” said Josephine LaForge, “…but I’m not able to right now. My family’s heart is broken. It’s like a part of us is missing.”
Quincy Bad Moccasin Sr., Byington’s father, addressed Renova and Birdtail.
“What kind of person beats a child? What kind of monster could do what Emilio did to baby Tony?” Bad Moccasin said.
Bad Moccasin said Tony will never get the chance to live a life. He will never go fishing or watch cartoons with his grandfather. He will never graduate from high school.
Bad Moccasin said he hopes Renova is given “prison justice” for his crime.
To Birdtail, Bad Moccasin said, “What kind of person could stand there and watch a baby being beaten to death and not stop it?”
In his mind, Bad Moccasin said, Birdtail was as guilty of Tony’s murder as Renova. He said he wishes Birdtail’s charges had been more severe. He also called for prison justice for Birdtail.
“I hope he is beaten and that there is a prisoner standing there encouraging it as it goes on. Maybe only then would he know how my grandson felt,” Bad Moccasin said.
As for Byington, Bad Moccasin had no suggestions for her sentence.
He recalled fishing with Byington when she was a girl and sheltering her from a storm under a rock overhang to keep her safe.
“I think, ‘Why was baby Tony not protected like that?’” he said. “Stephanie is my daughter, and I love her. I still don’t want to believe that this is real, that she was capable of hurting her own child, yet I know she did.”
Al Cotton, Tony’s foster grandfather, spoke with the Tribune after watching the sentencing via Zoom. Cotton’s daughter and son-in-law raised Tony from infancy until he was given back to his parents.
Cotton said he was just about to mow the grass around the pond that Tony used to throw rocks into. He has since drained it because it held too many painful memories.
He would like to have seen the defendants get the death penalty, Cotton said, and he echoed Bad Moccasin’s call for “inmate justice.”
Cotton said he wasn’t able to write a letter to the judge, and he wishes she would’ve mentioned the family Tony had while he was in foster care who loved him and wanted to adopt him.
“But it wasn’t to be,” Cotton said, “The last 5 months of his life were just pure hell for Tony, and I hope his parents suffer that same hell.”
Nick Brooke, one of Renova’s attorneys, asked for a 60-year sentence with 20 suspended for his client.
Brooke said throughout the case, Renova had been categorized as uncaring and unemotional, but he pointed out several times that Renova became upset after Tony’s murder.
“My client could not fathom how they woke up to Tony not breathing anymore and dead,” Brooke said. He argued that no one can know who dealt the death blow to Tony, and that’s why Renova pleaded no contest.
Brooke said despite the pattern of abuse that Renova and Byington subjected Tony to, they were both astonished to find out that he was dead and had been grieving parents ever since.
Joel Thompson, attorney for Byington, said his client was visibly remorseful in court.
He said that Byington had never made any excuses for her involvement in the crime and had been in an abusive relationship with Renova that inhibited her ability to stand up to him.
Thompson said Byington would accept the sentence that the court deemed appropriate.
Amanda Gordon, Birdtail’s attorney, pointed out that her client had cooperated with law enforcement, was ready to testify against Renova and was the first to change his plea in the case.
She also said Birdtail had no prior criminal record. However, Birdtail has since been accused of strangulation of a partner/family member and aggravated burglary, both felonies, as well as two misdemeanors.
Gordon said Birdtail had nothing to do with the pattern of abuse Tony suffered and was afraid of what Renova might do to his girlfriend and son if he were to intervene. He said the evidence confirmed that Birdtail had not laid a hand on Tony, and that’s why his charge was amended.
Gordon asked for a sentence of five years suspended on the accountability charge and 3 years deferred for evidence tampering.
“I know everybody thinks I’m a monster or whatever…but I did love Tony,” Renova said, later adding, “I miss him every day. I don’t care what anybody says. He’s my baby.”
Renova said Tony’s death had ruined his family and their whole lives.
Byington wrote a letter to the judge but did not speak in court.
Birdtail apologized for not doing anything the night of Tony’s murder, but he said he was worried about what Renova might do to his family.
“I can’t necessarily blame anybody but myself for being where I’m at now,” said Birdtail. “In my eyes, I always think about my sons first, over most anything, and as long as I know my sons are good, I feel there’s nothing that I should worry about.”
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