The baby’s mother Sheyenne Shore was found guilty after a case that stretched from Nevada, Iowa, to Fresno County, California.
NEVADA, Iowa — What began as a failed attempt to save a 7-month-old at a Story County hospital ended nearly three years later with her mother convicted of first-degree murder and awaiting sentencing.
Sheyenne Shore, 26, was found guilty April 2 in the death of her daughter, Xena, who was brought to Story County Medical Center on June 11, 2023. The case drew attention across central Iowa because of the baby’s age, the injuries listed in court documents and the fact that both parents later left the state before being returned to face charges. Shore’s sentencing is scheduled for June 1.
The first public setting in the case was the hospital. Medical staff tried to revive Xena but were not able to save her. According to the criminal complaint, the baby was already cold and stiff when she arrived, and her pupils were fixed and dilated. Doctors recorded injuries that included cuts and bruises on the face and torso, a broken wrist, bleeding in the right eye and hemorrhaging in the liver. They also found older fractures that were healing in both arms and in a femur. Those findings changed the case from a medical emergency into a death investigation. The Iowa State Medical Examiner later ruled the death a homicide and found that the head injuries were not accidental.
Shore and Xena’s father, Juan Angel Montalvo Jr., told police the baby had hit her head on baby toys during tummy time. They denied knowing how Xena suffered the other injuries. That account did not settle the case for investigators. Police searched the Nevada apartment where the couple lived and found baby clothes and blankets with bloodstains. Investigators also collected records that showed Shore had left the apartment without Xena around 11 a.m. on the day of the death, even though police said she had claimed she did not leave the child alone or with anyone else in the final three days. Montalvo was in another part of Nevada that day, according to the complaint.
The movement of the case from Iowa to California came after Xena’s death. Authorities said Shore and Montalvo were taken into custody in Fresno County, California, on unrelated charges. They were later returned to Iowa after Nevada police announced first-degree murder and child endangerment charges in September 2023. The California arrests added a flight element to the public account, but the core of the prosecution remained in Story County. It focused on the baby’s injuries, the parents’ statements, the apartment search and the records from June 11. Prosecutors did not publicly rely on one eyewitness account of the fatal injury. Instead, they used medical and circumstantial evidence to argue that Xena died from abuse.
Phone records helped fill in the final afternoon. Shore began texting Montalvo at 3:10 p.m. to say Xena was unresponsive and that she was taking her to the hospital. Montalvo did not respond until 3:46 p.m., and the two had a brief call. At 3:59 p.m., Shore texted that Xena was gone and that medical workers had tried everything they could. An acquaintance of Montalvo later told investigators that he said he was going to the hospital because his daughter had hit her head. Around 6 p.m., the acquaintance said, Montalvo indicated that he would be back at work by 7 p.m. Those messages gave investigators a sequence to compare with medical findings and witness statements.
The two parents’ court cases separated before Shore’s trial. Montalvo, 37, pleaded guilty in February 2025 to an amended charge of child endangerment causing serious injury. He was sentenced to an indeterminate prison term with a maximum of 10 years. Shore remained charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death by intentional act. Jurors convicted her on both counts. The difference between the outcomes now leaves Montalvo serving the sentence from his plea while Shore faces the sentencing structure tied to a murder conviction. In Iowa, adult first-degree murder convictions carry life in prison unless a governor later commutes the sentence.
The evidence described in public records also showed why the case did not turn only on what Shore said at the hospital. The healing fractures suggested earlier trauma. The liver and eye hemorrhaging pointed to serious internal injury. The bloodstained clothes and blankets gave police physical items from the home. The receipts and surveillance video challenged part of Shore’s account of who had been with Xena. Each category of evidence filled a different role. Together, they allowed prosecutors to tell jurors that the explanation of a head bump on toys was not enough to explain the full medical picture.
Authorities have not publicly answered every factual question. The record available in news reports and criminal complaint summaries does not state exactly when each healing fracture occurred. It does not list a public admission from Shore that she caused the injuries. It does not describe a completed appeal or any post-verdict ruling changing the outcome. The known record is narrower but still severe: a baby died after being brought to a hospital, the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, both parents were charged, one pleaded guilty to a lesser count and the other was convicted by a jury of murder.
For Story County, the June 1 hearing will bring the case back to the courthouse in Nevada, the same community where investigators searched the apartment after Xena died. The hearing is expected to include the formal entry of judgment and any statements permitted before sentence is imposed. It will also mark the next public milestone in a case that has lasted from summer 2023 into spring 2026. Any later appellate action would come after sentencing and entry of judgment.
Shore remains convicted of first-degree murder and child endangerment. Her sentencing is scheduled for June 1, while Montalvo’s separate child endangerment case has already been resolved.
Author note: Last updated April 28, 2026.