"Baby John Doe" - 11 Months/ Accused: Ana Cuatlayotl - Riverside CA

Jury deliberations got under way Wednesday in the trial of a
Riverside woman accused of severely abusing a toddler to the point of
causing brain damage and blindness.
Ana Soto Cuatlayotl, 24, could face nine years in prison if convicted
of child abuse and inflicting great bodily injury on a child.
Testimony in Cuatlayotl’s trial, which began Monday, wrapped up this
afternoon, and jurors went behind closed doors for two hours before
being released for the day by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jean
Leonard.
Deliberations are slated to resume Thursday morning.
The defendant remains free on bond.
The District Attorney’s Office alleges that Cuatlayotl was
babysitting an 11-month-old boy and two older children on Aug. 24, 2007,
when she got angry with the youngest child, identified in court
documents only as “Doe.”
The defendant, who was five months pregnant at the time, was
supervising the children for her sister and members of her sister’s
husband’s family, with whom Cuatlayotl resided in the same house,
according to Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beechum.
The prosecutor alleged that the woman became irate when the baby boy
would not mind her and shook him violently, causing his head to snap
back and hit a bedpost.
According to court papers, Cuatlayotl later admitted to Riverside
police investigators that she also dropped the child on his head while
carrying him to another room.
The defendant realized the tot was hurt when his head began swelling
and his breathing became labored, prompting her to call his mother, who
rushed home from Orange County and took Doe to a hospital, where he was
diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, according to court papers.
During an examination, doctors discovered bruising on the toddler’s
shoulders, including a “uniquely patterned bruise” that Cuatlayotl
admitted inflicting by striking the boy with a fly swatter, Beechum
alleged.
“She … said that she did not love Doe, but she did love the other
children,” the prosecutor alleged in a trial brief. “In (an) apology
letter, she wished forgiveness from Doe’s mother and stated that God
should inflict the same injuries to her … child as punishment.”
The victim, now 5 years old, is blind, cannot move or speak and requires round-the-clock care, according to Beechum.
http://www.swrnn.com/2011/06/08/riverside-jurors-to-decide-fate-of-woman-accused-of-disabling-blinding-child/