RILEY SALAS - 1 yo - Las Cruces NM

http://www.ktsm.com/local/update-couple-charged-with-abusing-1-year-old

UPDATE: 5:30 p.m.- According to Las Cruces Police, the hospital says the child has two broken arms, and signs of cigarette burns, strangulation, and numerous thumbtack pricks. The charges of the two adults involved have been upgraded to one count each of intentional child abuse.

LAS CRUCES- A 1-year-old boy with a broken arm and several other injuries is in an area hospital while his mother and her boyfriend are charged with child abuse.

Sierra Nicole Salas, 20, and Nicholas John Medina, 19, both of 2241 Entrada Del Sol, are charged with one count each of negligent child abuse.

Salas’ 1-year-old son, Riley, has a fractured arm, an infected wound on his upper lip and significant bruising to his face, neck, abdomen and feet. Las Cruces Police learned that Salas was unable to offer a reasonable explanation for her son’s injuries.

On Tuesday evening Las Cruces Police were called to Mountain View Regional Medical Center after hospital staff examined the boy and found his injuries to be indicative of abuse. LCPD detectives interviewed Salas and Medina and received conflicting statements from the couple.

Salas told detectives that on Tuesday, Nov. 29, she took her son to the hospital after suspecting that his right arm might be broken. X-rays confirmed the fracture and medical staff also discovered blisters on the boy’s feet and other bruising about his face and neck. Salas claimed that she would wake up every day and find Riley with new injuries.

In attempting to explain Riley’s split lip, Salas initially told detectives that he fell to the floor on Thanksgiving Day. Later, Salas told investigators that the injury occurred a few days prior to Thanksgiving. Detectives also were told that on Thanksgiving evening, while driving back to their apartment, Medina became irritated with Riley crying so he stopped the car, pulled the child from his seat and bit him on the cheek.

Medina told detectives that the only injuries to Riley that he knew about were the split lip and a slight bruise to his cheek.

Riley is continuing to receive treatment at an area hospital. Salas and Medina are being held at the Dona Ana County Detention Center with cash-only bonds set at $75,000 each.

LAS CRUCES — Thumbtack punctures to his hands, feet, arms and sides. A
freshly broken right arm and a broken left arm that had already begun
healing when doctors discovered it. A left ear filled with dried blood.
Apparent strangulation bruises on the neck, other bruises and nail marks
on his sides. A split upper lip and cigarette-burned toes, left to
become infected. A bite mark and a bruise covering his face.

The mother of the injured 1-year-old told police her small chihuahua —
or the baby himself — might be responsible for the injuries.

Police and prosecutors think differently, and say not only was the
child being injured, he was being confined to his bed up to 20 hours a
day, according to new court documents made public in the case.

Sierra Nicole Salas and her boyfriend, Nick Medina, both 20,
residents of Woodcrest Apartment Homes, were indicted Thursday by a Dona
Ana County grand jury: Medina on seven counts of intentional child
abuse and Salas on six counts of intentional child abuse and three
counts of negligent child abuse allegedly inflicted between Oct. 3 and
Nov. 29.

It was on Nov. 29 that the couple was arrested after Salas brought
the baby to the hospital, telling emergency room personnel he had
sustained the injuries to his lip and his right arm when he fell on tile
flooring, according to court documents.

But when doctors found the other injuries, Salas had no explanation.

When police officers went to the apartment, Medina initially refused
to answer — he had gotten up at 3 p.m. and was playing video games and
smoking marijuana, he told police. Medina told investigators he had
“never hurt” the baby and had “very little direct contact” with the
child, but “he had already warned (Salas) that (the baby’s) injuries
weren’t going to look good to people,” according to court documents.

Medina’s mother, who was able to convince Medina via phone to let the
police in, said she had seen the baby on Thanksgiving with a “severe
cut” to his upper lip, but that she didn’t ask anyone what happened,
court documents state. The woman also said she noticed “several bald
patches” on the baby’s head, which Salas attributed to the infant
“pulling out his own hair and eating it,” court documents state.
Medina’s sister also said she had never seen the couple acting abusively
toward the child.

Salas, as well, seemed mystified, telling police she didn’t know her
child’s feet were injured until she saw them at the hospital, and “she
thought the majority of (the baby’s) injuries were caused by their dog, a
small chihuahua,” although the bruising to his neck might have been
from her holding him to clean his lip, according to court documents.

“Every morning,” she told police at the hospital, “she would awaken
to find (the baby) had new mysterious injuries and she did not know how
they were caused.”

But in another interview at the police department, Salas admitted
that Thanksgiving night, Medina had gotten irritated by the baby’s
crying, took the baby out of the car and the baby “suddenly began crying
harder.” Salas “asked Nick what he did to (the baby) and Nick told her
that he bit Riley on the cheek because, if he was going to cry, he might
as well give him a reason to do it,” court documents state. The next
morning “she told Nick never to bite (the child) again.”

Salas also told investigators she believed Medina was jealous of the
attention she gave her baby and “gets irritated” when she comforted the
child, “telling her that she is turning (the child) into a cry baby.”
But she also tried to pin the blame on the baby himself, saying she
believed he “is upset with her because she moved him away from his
biological father and that he is inflicting injuries on himself.”

Salas told police “she’s suffering from depression and isn’t sure
whether or not she is actually hurting (the child) but not remembering
doing it” and that the baby “frequently trips and falls over random
obstacles in the apartment.”

The couple remains jailed at the Dona Ana County Detention Center under $75,000 cash-only bonds.

A trial date before state District Court Judge Lisa Schultz has not yet been scheduled.
http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/12/23/abqnewsseeker/mother-boyfriend-indicted-in-las-cruces-on-child-abuse-charges.html

Oh dear Lord, please find a new and safe home for Riley and don't allow him to be returned to these animals and abusers. They have torturned this poor 1 year old baby and he will probably have problems all his life. How can a mother allow this to happen. I hope they are prosecuted and go to jail for a long time. I hope they took the chihuahua away too -- how ridiculous to blame inuries on a dog! This crap infuriates me!