Sheyenne Shore faces sentencing after jurors found her guilty in the death of her infant daughter, Xena.
NEVADA, Iowa — A county judge is scheduled to sentence Sheyenne Shore on June 1 after a jury found the Nevada mother guilty of first-degree murder and child endangerment in her infant daughter’s 2023 death.
The April 2 verdict ended the trial phase of a case that began when Shore brought 7-month-old Xena to Story County Medical Center on June 11, 2023. It also placed Shore, 26, under Iowa’s first-degree murder sentencing law for adults. The child’s father, Juan Angel Montalvo Jr., previously pleaded guilty to a lesser child endangerment charge and received a prison sentence not to exceed 10 years.
Shore’s sentencing will follow a record built around two main questions: what happened to Xena before she arrived at the hospital, and whether Shore’s explanation fit the injuries doctors saw. Medical staff said Xena was cold and stiff when she arrived, with pupils that were dilated and fixed. Lifesaving efforts failed. Shore told investigators that the baby had hit her head on baby toys during tummy time. Montalvo gave the same explanation, according to the criminal complaint. Both denied knowing how Xena received other injuries. The medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide and determined that the head injuries were not accidental.
The injuries described in court documents were wide-ranging. Xena had cuts and bruises on her face and torso, a broken wrist, bleeding in the right eye and hemorrhaging in the liver. Doctors also found healing fractures in both arms and in a femur. Those older injuries gave prosecutors evidence of trauma that predated the final hospital visit. The complaint said findings in the brain and eyes were consistent with non-accidental head injuries. For jurors, the state’s case did not rest on a single bruise or a single message. It rested on the pattern described by medical experts and the account Shore gave when asked how the child had been hurt.
The investigation expanded from the hospital to the apartment Shore shared with Montalvo in Nevada. Police searched the home and found baby clothes and blankets with bloodstains. Investigators then compared that evidence with phone records, receipts and surveillance video. Police said Shore initially told them she had not left Xena alone or with anyone else during the last three days of her life. Store records and video showed she left the apartment without the baby around 11 a.m. on June 11. Montalvo was in another part of Nevada that day, investigators said. The gap between Shore’s statement and the records became part of the case that prosecutors presented to the jury.
The afternoon record also included messages between Shore and Montalvo. At 3:10 p.m., Shore began texting that Xena was unresponsive and that she was taking the baby to the hospital. Montalvo did not answer until 3:46 p.m., after which the two had a short phone call. At 3:59 p.m., Shore wrote that Xena was gone and that medical workers had tried everything they could. An acquaintance of Montalvo told investigators that Montalvo said he was heading to the hospital because his daughter had hit her head. The same person said Montalvo later indicated he expected to return to work by 7 p.m. Authorities used those details to place the parents’ statements in the hours surrounding the death.
Charges were not announced immediately after Xena died. Nevada police said in September 2023 that Shore and Montalvo were charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death. By then, both had been taken into custody in Fresno County, California, on unrelated charges and were returned to Iowa. The delay between the June death and September charges reflected an investigation that included a medical examiner’s ruling, a search of the apartment and a review of records. The case entered Story County court with both parents accused, but the cases later followed different paths.
Montalvo’s path ended with a plea. In February 2025, he pleaded guilty to child endangerment causing serious injury, an amended count, and was sentenced to an indeterminate term not exceeding 10 years. Shore’s case continued to trial on first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death by intentional act. Her conviction means the court now must address a Class A felony murder judgment at sentencing. Iowa law says an adult convicted of a Class A felony is committed to state custody for life and is not released on parole unless the governor commutes the sentence to a term of years. The sentencing hearing will make that consequence formal if the conviction stands.
The public record does not answer every question about Xena’s final hours. It does not identify a public confession by Shore. It does not name a single witness who saw the fatal injury occur. It does not explain in detail when each older fracture happened. What it does include is a medical conclusion that the injuries were not accidental, the parents’ shared account of a head bump during tummy time, physical evidence recovered from the home and records that contradicted part of Shore’s statement about the baby not being left alone. The jury’s verdict shows that those facts were enough for conviction.
The June hearing will be the next formal step in a case that has moved from emergency care to homicide charges, from a co-defendant’s plea to a mother’s murder verdict. It may also bring victim impact statements and final arguments over any remaining sentencing issues connected to the child endangerment count. Appeals are possible after judgment is entered, but no appeal had been resolved as of April 28.
Sheyenne Shore remains convicted in Story County, with sentencing set for June 1. Montalvo’s separate case has already ended in a 10-year maximum prison term.
Author note: Last updated April 28, 2026.