Santa Ana mother charged with beating infant, breaking 16 bones
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A Santa Ana mother has been charged with brutally beating her 5-week-old son who was left with 16 broken bones, including a fractured knee and skull.
Mirian Jimenez-Olivera, 34, was charged Thursday by the Orange County district attorney's office with repeatedly beating the child when he refused to stop crying.
She is accused of punching the infant in the ribs, shoulder and arms when he cried on multiple occasions and roughly pulling his leg while changing his diapers, according to the district attorney's office. The abuse by Jimenez-Olivera allegedly began when the child was 2 weeks old, prosecutors say.
The baby's father, Edgar Busto-Rodriguez, 35, has also been charged with being an accessory after the fact for trying to cover up his wife's alleged abuse when he lied to police about how his son was injured.
Authorities were made aware of the abuse when the boy was taken to the Children's Hospital of Orange County on Monday. The parents took him to seek care when the infant wasn't moving his left arm, according to the district attorney.
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During the hospital visit, doctors found the baby had 16 broken bones, including a fractured skull, knee, elbow, finger and ribs.
“A mother’s arms should be the safest place for a newborn, fiercely protecting him from the world, but for [this baby] his mother’s arms were the weapons of violence which helped systematically break his little bones into tiny pieces because he wouldn’t stop doing what every newborn does — cry,” said Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer.
“No child should be brought into this world and be subjected to unimaginable pain — and then be left to suffer in silence, not knowing when the next time his mother would lash out in anger and break another rib or snap another bone."
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Spitzer commended the hospital staff "who rescued this defenseless baby from the living hell he was born into.”
Jimenez-Olivera was charged with 11 felony counts of child abuse. She faces a maximum sentence of 42 years in state prison if convicted on all counts.
Busto-Rodriguez was charged with one felony count of accessory after the fact. He faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
The parents have pleaded not guilty and are being held in custody in lieu of $1-million bond each.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
