Scorned Wife Allegedly Admits to Fatally Throwing 2-Year-Old Stepson After Abusing Him for Months

A California woman accused of killing her 2-year-old stepson has allegedly confessed to fatally throwing the boy into the air over long-simmering resentment that he was the result of her husband’s infidelity, PEOPLE confirms.

Chalsey Maynard, 30, is facing child abuse charges in the death of little Jaxson, who authorities say died of a severe head injury on July 28.

According to child-welfare investigative documents obtained by PEOPLE, Maynard allegedly admitted to county Child Protective Services officials that she threw the boy high in the air at her home in Stockton, California, and purposely let him fall on his head in anger over her husband’s affair with Jaxson’s mother, Brittany Gonzales.

“My world just crashed and burned when I heard that,” Gonzales, 28, of Salida, California, tells PEOPLE of the moments she learned of Maynard’s confession.

“My son did not deserve to have that happen to him just because she doesn’t like me,” Gonzales says.

Jaxson was rushed to a local hospital on July 25 and Maynard was arrested a day later. Gonzales says she was initially told that he had a “trampoline accident” while in the care of both Maynard and Jaxson’s father, Willard, who is married to Maynard. (PEOPLE could not reach him for comment.)

“I knew that didn’t add up in my head,” Gonzales says of being told a trampoline was involved. “My poor baby went out like that when he didn’t have to. Her reason behind it was because she had a deep dislike for me — it’s totally wrong.”

Maynard allegedly told officials that she and Willard had been married for nearly nine years before she found out in January 2016 that Gonzales and Willard had a son together, according to the CPS documents.

She said she was “depressed and devastated” after learning of her husband’s affair and that just looking at Jaxson — even months later — reminded her of Willard’s cheating and made her remember “how mad she was about everything,” the documents allege.

So “she threw [Jaxson] in the air and let him drop” on July 25 while Willard was away, the documents claim. “She did not try catch him.”

“I knew she didn’t like me from the get-go because I was deemed the ‘other woman,’ ” Gonzales tells PEOPLE. “Once his dad got joint custody [in November], she never really liked to talk to me or she would say very belittling things to me. The relationship we had was pretty much absent.”

Maynard is charged with felony child abuse/endangerment and felony corporal injury to a child, along with an unspecified felony, jail records show.

She is being held at the San Jaoquin County Jail in California on $2.35 million bail.

It is unclear whether she has entered a plea or retained an attorney. The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE.

Suspect Confessed to Months of Abuse: Documents

“I did everything,” Maynard allegedly told authorities after initially denying she was responsible for Jaxson’s abuse, the documents show. She allegedly also told officials that just before Christmas 2016, she beat Jaxson with a toy bat while Willard was away, leaving the toddler with marks on his butt as well as discoloration on his legs and thighs.

Gonzales says she told CPS officials that Jaxson complained of pain around this time — saying “hurt, hurt” — and she took him to the hospital, though she never found out how the boy had gotten the bruises.

She tells PEOPLE that she reported the incident, but investigators could not determine who abused the child.

A few weeks before his death, Maynard allegedly abused Jaxson again while giving him a bath, she told authorities, as detailed in the documents.

“Chalsey said she held [Jaxson] under the water by holding him down by his neck. [Jaxson] was squirming,” the documents claim. “Chalsey said when she saw herself holding him underwater she stopped and asked herself what she was doing.”

Officials also interviewed Gonzales’ boyfriend, Austin Mount, who said the mom of three had been tipped off about her son’s abuse: She received an anonymous phone call on July 17 from a woman who said Gonzales “should not let [Jaxson] go back to Willard’s house because Chalsey was abusing him.”

Mount said that Gonzales did not report the call because she did “not know if she could take it serious or not.”

Now, Gonzales says she wants nothing more than to have her son back.

“I’m emotional all the time. My anxiety is high. Every day I wake up and I wish my son was here,” she says. “It’s been a nightmare. A nightmare is the perfect way to describe these last few weeks.”

A GoFundMe page has been created to benefit the family.

“He was just so silly. He loved to sing and dance. He loved to be around people,” Gonzales says through tears of Jaxson. “He was very independent, very soft spoken. He deserves justice for everything that he’s gone through.”