Posted on 09/04/2001 8:23:49 PM PDT by sinkspur
An 18-month-old Irving boy who was removed from his home by Child Protective Services and then returned to his mother by a jury has died from injuries authorities said were inflicted by the mother and her boyfriend.
Roy Aguilera died at 11:58 p.m. Monday at Children's Medical Center in Dallas.
A CPS caseworker investigating the case described the injuries as "the worst she has seen in five years," according to documents. The boy had broken legs, bruises on his face and burns on his back.
His 5-year-old sister was been placed in CPS custody.
Jose Guadalupe Aguilera, 30, and the boy's mother, Yesenia Hernandez, 20, were arrested last week and charged with injury to a child. It was not clear this morning if the charges would be upgraded because the child died.
The boy lost consciousness Thursday evening while in the care of Mr. Aguilera, who called Irving police for help.
When officers arrived at the couple's apartment in the 1900 block of Shoaff Drive, they found the injured boy on the bed.
Ms. Hernandez was not home when police arrived.
For education and discussion purposes only.
Trial ordered in toddler’s death
Boy’s injuries not consistent with fall, pathologist says
By Mike Hoeft mhoeft@greenbaypressgazette.com
About the charges
Erin Hill is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and child abuse in the death of Tommy Burke, 2. If convicted, she faces up to 70 years in prison. She remains held on $50,000 bail and will enter a plea Sept. 24 before Brown County Circuit Judge William Griesbach.
Two-year-old Tommy Burke died last week of head injuries that probably didn’t result from a fall down a flight of stairs, a forensic pathologist said.
“It may have been from shaking,” Dr. Mark Witeck testified Friday at a preliminary hearing for Erin Hill in Brown County Circuit Court.
Hill, 21, the live-in girlfriend of the toddler’s father, was ordered on Friday to stand trial in the toddler’s death. Police testified she gave inconsistent statements on how the boy became injured at his Ashwaubenon apartment.
At Friday’s hearing, prosecutors called several witnesses to testify about Tommy Burke, Hill and any significant events they recalled leading up to Burke’s injuries and his Aug. 23 death at St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay.
Mary Ann Hansen, who operates a child-care center, testified she saw no injuries on the boy in the hours before Hill picked him up at 11 p.m. Aug. 20.
Throughout the three-hour hearing, Hill gave no outward signs of emotion and took notes occasionally as she sat next to her defense lawyer, Mark Skvara.
Dutcher Matyjasik, who lives in the four-unit Ashwaubenon townhouse, testified he heard banging and a child crying distressfully on Aug. 21, just after midnight. He got out of bed, went outside and stood below Hill’s second-floor bedroom window.
He said he yelled, “Knock it off,” and banged on the wall. The sounds stopped, but the child’s crying continued. He reported the incident the next morning to a social worker.
Paramedics who responded to Hill’s 911 call found the boy unconscious at about 7:30 p.m. Aug. 21 on Hill’s living room floor at 2204 Carstensen Lane. He also had bite marks on his feet and bruises on his genitals. The boy died at a hospital two days later.
The child’s mother, Paula Roush, attended Friday’s hearing with a half-dozen family members, but Roush left the courtroom when Witeck described details of the autopsy.
Witeck said that with such significant head injuries, a fall on stairs would produce a bruising on the child’s back, front or extremities.
That did not happen in this case, he said. Tommy Burke’s head injuries were consistent with multiple blows or shaking rather than one blow, he said.
Timothy David, an investigator with Ashwaubenon Public Safety, interviewed Hill after she was arrested at the hospital.
David testified Hill appeared quiet “and a bit bewildered.” She admitted biting Tommy by accident and said Tommy kicked her in the mouth as she kissed his feet and then she got lockjaw.
David also testified that Hill said the boy hurt his head when she had “run over” the boy in the kitchen and he hit his head on the floor. She later said he fell backwards in the bathtub and hit his forehead. She told 911 dispatchers he fell down the stairs.
“I told her I didn’t believe the injuries could have happened that way,” David testified.
Hill admitted losing her temper with the boy Aug. 20 and got frustrated when he didn’t go to sleep, David said, but she did not elaborate. The next afternoon, Tommy had tantrums and was difficult to control, she told police.
Elizabeth Zankle testified she returned to her home on Carstensen Lane at about 1:30 a.m. She recalled hearing a man and woman fighting at about 2 a.m. Aug. 21. Later that evening, she heard a thump and then heard an ambulance arrive about five minutes later.
After the testimony, Brown County Court Commissioner Phoebe Mix ruled there was sufficient evidence for Hill to stand trial.
Skvara opposed the ruling, saying there was “little that would implicate my client in a felony.” He also stressed that Witeck’s autopsy findings were preliminary and not completed.
Outside of court, Brown County District Attorney John Zakowski said the hearing affirmed his position that a disturbance occurred at times “when the only ones home were Erin Hill and little Tommy Burke.”
Hill’s statement was “certainly inconsistent,” Zakowski said.
It doesn't surprise me that you would say something like that. It is never moral or acceptable to remove children from their biological parents, and it is not the government's place to do so.
If the mother is guilty of murder, she should be tried for murder. Period. That is the government's only role here.
My Guess? No kid in the house, no ADC check.
Without a doubt the dumbest post I have ever seen.
Have you ever NOT defended big, intrusive government??
When it needs it yes. That does NOT make your post any less stupid.
From a big government lover like you, that doesn't mean much to me.
I can't agree that children must be killed before something can be done for them. Do you feel the same about wife beating? That a man has the right to beat his wife and the government should not intervene until she's dead?
Oh take it from me "dumb as a rock" really means it.
Who to believe?
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