The 2-year-old died while in foster care after earlier county cases had already prompted reform promises.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The death of 2-year-old Jaxon Juarez in a San Jose foster home has deepened scrutiny of Santa Clara County’s child welfare system, which was already under state oversight after earlier child deaths.
Prosecutors have charged Jaxon’s teenage foster brother and cousin with murder, but the case has grown beyond one criminal defendant. County and state officials are now reviewing how Jaxon was placed in the home, whether warning signs were missed and whether reforms ordered after prior cases had changed daily decisions for vulnerable children.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen placed Jaxon’s death in that wider context when he announced charges April 20. He said Jaxon was the third foster child since 2023 to have been murdered while under the care and custody of Santa Clara County’s Department of Family and Children’s Services. Rosen said the toddler’s name now joined Baby Phoenix and other children whose short lives ended through “cruelty and recklessness.” Baby Phoenix, whose full name was Phoenix Castro, died in 2023 after ingesting fentanyl and methamphetamine. Her death led to county hearings, public outrage and a push for child welfare reforms. Jaxon’s death has raised a direct question: why did another child die after the county had already been warned?
Jaxon was found April 5 in a crib at the San Jose foster home where he had been placed weeks earlier. Prosecutors said San Jose police found the child bruised and battered. Rosen said a hair tie or ponytail holder was found around the toddler’s neck, which led prosecutors to file a felony assault charge involving a hair tie. Jaxon was hospitalized and placed on life support. He died April 9. Prosecutors said evidence showed he had been repeatedly assaulted, sexually and physically, since his placement in the foster family home in February. A full autopsy was pending when the district attorney’s office announced the murder charge.
The accused teen was 17 when Jaxon was found and had turned 18 by the time prosecutors announced the new charges. His name has not been released because the case is in juvenile court. The district attorney’s office said he is charged with murder, child assault causing death, assault with a hair tie and several sexual assault counts. The office is seeking to transfer the case to adult court. If the juvenile petition is found true, prosecutors said he could face seven years in Secure Track, a locked facility for juveniles found responsible for serious crimes. If a judge moves the case to adult court, the district attorney’s office said he could face many years in prison.
The county review centers on the home where Jaxon was placed. Jaxon had been living with Bridget Michelle Martinez, the mother of the accused teen and a relative of Jaxon’s father. Local reporting found that Martinez had a 2014 felony child endangerment conviction tied to a DUI case in which her 1-year-old daughter was in the car. Records also showed a prior DUI conviction from 2011 and another DUI charge in 2020. A county policy cited in reporting says a felony child endangerment conviction blocks the placement of a child with that person, even in an emergency. County officials have not explained whether the conviction was missed, overlooked or handled through an exception.
Jaxon’s relatives say the placement followed a series of moves after his mother, Brianna Burton, died in 2025. His aunt, Riley Wallace, said he first lived with another foster family, then with his maternal grandfather near Sacramento for about six months. Wallace said the grandfather could not continue because the county required regular visits near the South Bay with Jaxon’s father, Albert Juarez. The county then placed Jaxon with Martinez in late February. Wallace said her family in Arizona wanted to care for the boy but was turned down because of distance from the father and because Jaxon had not been placed for adoption. “It is completely unacceptable,” Wallace said.
County officials have said the case is under review by law enforcement and the Department of Family and Children’s Services. They also requested an independent investigation from the California Department of Social Services. In a statement, the county called the death “deeply concerning” and said it would share results when available and allowed by law. Those reviews could examine case notes, criminal background checks, placement approvals, supervisor decisions and any communication with relatives who wanted to take Jaxon. The county has not released those records, and child welfare confidentiality rules may limit how much of the file becomes public.
The reforms after Baby Phoenix’s death had focused attention on how the county weighs family placement, family reunification and child safety. At a 2023 county hearing after Phoenix died, officials and advocates debated how to protect children without causing harm through unnecessary removals. County leaders later said the agency was making progress under a corrective action plan. Jaxon’s death does not by itself answer whether those reforms failed, but it has become a test of whether policy changes reached the front line. The key issue is not only what rules existed, but whether workers had the time, information and supervision to follow them.
Steve Baron, a member of Santa Clara County’s Child Abuse Prevention Council, said the placement decision should be reviewed from the ground up. He said child safety must come before other goals when a home is approved. “It’s critical that whatever placement they decide, the first consideration should be, is it safe?” Baron said. He also said officials must determine whether workers knew about Martinez’s records. If they did, he said, the county must explain why the placement happened. If they did not, the county must explain why the background process failed to catch information that should have been part of the review.
The case has also led to calls for accountability from Jaxon’s family and local officials. Wallace said the agency failed at the very task it was supposed to perform. Rosen said the county must answer who was watching out for children in its care. Martinez was arrested during the broader investigation, according to local reporting, but she was no longer in custody as of the first public reports. The public record does not show that she has been charged in connection with Jaxon’s death. The criminal case against her son remains the only public murder case tied to the toddler’s death.
Currently, the county had not released a final report on Jaxon’s placement, the state review remained pending and prosecutors were still seeking to move the teen’s case to adult court. The next public milestone could come from court filings, the autopsy or the county’s promised investigation findings.
Author note: Last updated May 10, 2026.