BRAEDEN GARDNER - 5 yo - Sacramento CA

A Sacramento woman and her boyfriend were arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of the woman's 5-year-old son.

Eduardo Zamora, 31, was charged with the murder of Braeden James Gardner, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

Gardner died on June 17 at UC Davis Medical
Center. Sheriff's department spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said doctors
found extensive bruises on the boy and feces in his mouth.

Upon further investigation, detectives with
the department's Child Abuse Bureau concluded that the Gardner's
mother, Amber Christine Ingram, 25, was also responsible for her son's
death.

"Detectives believe that she was responsible for allowing the child to be placed in a situation that
endangered his life," Curran said.

Officers arrested Ingram at her job Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of endangering the life or health of a child.
She was being held on $100,000 bail at Sacramento County Jail.

Sacramento County sheriff's officials have arrested a 25-year-old
woman in connection with the death of her 5-year-old boy.

According to online jail records, Amber Christine Ingram was arrested Tuesday on a charge of endangering the life or health of a child.Braeden James Gardner, Ingram's child, died June 17 at UC Davis Medical Center.
He was severely bruised, with sores on his face and suspected internal
injuries, according to court documents. Doctors also found feces in his
mouth.

Authorities arrested Ingram's live-in
boyfriend, 31-year-old Eduardo Zamora Jr., June 18 on suspicion of
murder and assault resulting in the death of a child under 8.In a request for an arrest warrant for Zamora, Detective Tom Koontz wrote that Zamora had spanked Braeden after the boy apparently defecated in his pants.Zamora said that he may have hit the boy too hard because he had been frustrated with him, according to the document filed in Sacramento Superior Court.Court documents on Ingram were not yet available Tuesday afternoon.Initially, authorities did not believe that Ingram was a suspect, but that changed with further investigation, said Sgt. Tim Curran, department spokesman."Detectives
believe that she was responsible for allowing the child to be placed in
a situation that endangered his life," Curran said.Ingram is being held on $100,000 bail at the Sacramento County Main Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

Amber Ingram told authorities she saw bruising on her 5-year-old son, and that she knew her live-in boyfriend, Eduardo Zamora Jr., was hitting the boy with his hand and belt.According to Sacramento Superior Court documents, Ingram told Zamora to stop, and threatened to leave, but it was too late for little Braeden James Gardner.The boy died in June with suspected internal injuries, and doctors found feces in his mouth, other court documents stated.

Zamora, 31, was arrested June 18, a day after the boy died at UC Davis
Medical Center, and was charged with the child's murder. Ingram, 25,
was arraigned Thursday on a felony charge of endangering the life or
health of a child."I
never told my family or friends what was happening to my son," Ingram
told a Sacramento County sheriff's detective, according to a request
for an arrest warrant filed in court. "I was ashamed that I was letting
that happen to him and then I didn't do a thing about it, and that I
didn't leave."Ingram declined an interview with The Bee on Tuesday.In
court documents, Ingram – who separated in January from her husband,
who is not Braeden's biological father – told detectives that she
started living with Zamora in March. The couple lived in a Rosemont
duplex.Braeden was in day care until Zamora was laid off in
April as a driver at Allied Waste, where Ingram said she has worked for
almost four years."Eduardo got laid off and didn't want to pay for day care," Ingram told detectives.The "discipline" started about two weeks after Zamora started watching Braeden when Ingram went to work, she said."The
first time Eduardo spanked him with a belt was when Braeden lied to
him," Ingram said. "Eduardo would say this is how Mexican fathers deal
with their kids that lie."Ingram said Zamora later "felt bad about it," cut up his belt and threw it away, but then got another one.Ingram
said she wasn't present when Zamora spanked her child, but Zamora would
tell her about it. She also saw, at least on one occasion, a red mark
on Braeden's back and his buttocks, she said. Two days before Braeden's
death, she saw injuries on his back, his legs and "pretty much
everywhere," she said in court documents."When I would see the
injuries I would hug him and hold him and make sure that he was OK and
I would see the hurting and I would give him ice packs," Ingram said.
"He would say I love you and thank you and good night."Braeden never told her Zamora was hurting him, Ingram said in her statement.The
day Braeden died, June 17, Ingram said Zamora called her at work in the
morning to say that Braeden had defecated in his pants. Ingram told
Zamora to put Braeden in his room and put a movie on and she would
clean the mess when she got home.Zamora then sent Ingram a picture of feces on the wall to Ingram's cell phone, she told detectives.Ingram said she wanted to leave Zamora and had called a friend to say she wanted to move in with her."I
never left because I was scared for me and Braeden," Ingram said. "He
said if I was ever (sic) left him or cheated on him, he'd kill me."Braeden's
death is the latest case in the past year and a half in which
authorities have charged the mother with child endangerment. In these
cases, the mothers left their children with boyfriends who are not the
children's fathers.Valeeya Brazile, 3, died Feb. 5, 2008, from
being beaten. Jahmaurae Allen, 4, died July 21, 2008, after being
punched in the stomach and smashed against the wall for urinating in
his diaper. Manuel Maciel, 3, suffered major head trauma and died Nov.
9, 2008.Mothers of the children – Mia Holmes, Tiffany Lacy and Rosalie Uribe – have been charged with child endangerment.Holmes
and Lacy denied in court documents knowing that anything was amiss, and
records showed that both mothers tried to conceal from Sacramento
County's Child Protective Services the presence of their boyfriends and
the baby-sitting arrangements.Sacramento police alleged that Uribe left her children at home with her boyfriend knowing he was physically abusive.Sgt.
Tim Curran of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said no CPS
reports had been filed regarding Braeden and his mother.One
study published in the journal Pediatrics found that young children who
live in households with adults not related to them are nearly 50 times
as likely to die from maltreatment as children living with two
biological parents."The boyfriends are interested in having a
relationship with the women," said Dr. Bernard Ewigman, senior author
of the November 2005 study and professor of family medicine at the
University of Chicago-NorthShore University HealthSystem. "They are
neither prepared nor committed to the role of being parents."In
many cases, the men do not intend to hurt the child, Ewigman said, but
their threshold for tolerating the child's misdeeds is low compared
with someone who is committed to the child."Out of anger and ineffective discipline technique, they end up hurting or killing the child," Ewigman said.

Torture joins list of charges in Rosemont-area boy's killing


By Andy Furillo and Kim Minugh
afurillo@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 4B
Last Modified: Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010 - 8:02 am

The 5-year-old boy's dead body had been battered, bruised and beaten, maybe even bitten. The coroner's report listed his cause of death as the standard "multiple blunt force injuries," and the prosecutor said in a sworn statement that they were found "all over his body, both external and internal, including multiple fractures."

But that barely covered the reality of the brutality, according to the affidavit filed in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday.

"The only area of the child's body not diagramed with injuries," said the sworn statement from Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet, "are the palms of his hands."

Due to the extent of the injuries suffered by Braeden James Gardner, prosecutors on Tuesday added the special circumstance allegation of torture to the murder charges that had already been lodged against defendant Eduardo Zamora.

The allegation could result in the death penalty against the 31-year-old Zamora if he is convicted in the June 17 killing of the victim identified in court papers only as "Braeden G." Bladet said in court that her office hasn't decided whether to pursue capital punishment in the case.

Investigators contend the boy's fatal beating was prompted by his going to the bathroom in his pants.

In an amended complaint filed Tuesday, the District Attorney's Office also upgraded the charges against the boy's biological mother, Amber Christine Ingram, 25. Previously, Ingram had been facing only child endangerment charges. She now is accused of murder, although she was not named in the special-circumstance torture allegation.

Zamora and Ingram had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday, but Judge Marjorie Koller put the case over until prosecutors make their death penalty decision.

Bladet's statements on Braeden's injuries came in a declaration in support of her motion – granted by the judge – to obtain DNA samples and dental impressions from Zamora and Ingram.

Bite marks were discovered on the boy's thighs, Bladet said in the declaration.

"The identity of the individual who inflicted the bite wounds may be determined if the forensic odontologist is able to do a comparison to the wounds and the known impressions of each of the suspects," Bladet said in her declaration.

The prosecutor said the "unique shape" of some of Braeden's injuries "may be consistent with sex toys and other toys found in the couple's home."

No sexual assault charges, however, are included in the new complaint.

Ingram's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Michael Nelson, said he was disappointed that prosecutors filed the murder charge against his client. Nelson blamed Zamora for the death, and the lawyer said he will produce witnesses to testify to that effect when the case goes to trial. One of them, he said, could be Ingram.
"The acts that led to Braeden's death occurred when she was at work and she did everything she could think of to stop him and was in the process of moving out," Nelson said.

Zamora's lawyer, Greg Foster, said that Bladet's declaration "as far as I know is not factually accurate." Nelson said there is no proof that the wounds on the boy's thighs resulted from bites.
As for the torture allegation, "We'll see what happens at trial," Foster said.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Detective Tom Koontz, a six-year veteran in investigating child abuse, said in an interview that the Braeden case is "probably the worst one I've seen."

"It's just amazing that all those injuries were there – and nobody said or did anything about it," he said.
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Eduardo Zamora
Popular Comment
They should put him in the general population at CSP Sac (Folsom Level 4 Prison) and let the other inmates know what he is in there for. Having worked in the prison, I have learned that it is unanimous among all nationalities in prison that prisoners convicted of child abuse/murder and child rape are not popular among the other inmates.

"The boyfriends are interested in having a
relationship with the women," said Dr. Bernard Ewigman, senior author
of the November 2005 study and professor of family medicine at the
University of Chicago-NorthShore University HealthSystem. "They are
neither prepared nor committed to the role of being parents."In
many cases, the men do not intend to hurt the child, Ewigman said, but
their threshold for tolerating the child's misdeeds is low compared
with
someone who is committed to the child."Out of anger and ineffective
discipline technique, they end up hurting or killing the child," Ewigman
said.
Thank you thank you Dr Ewigman. This is what needs to be talked about and this is what young single mothers need to know!!!!!!! They need to to stop using their boyfriends as caregivers. send them to daycare and tell him to get a FF job.

Braeden Gardner

Age: 5

Died: June 17, 2009

The case: The boy was whipped, burned, beaten and tortured to death by his mother's unemployed live-in boyfriend, Eduardo Zamora Jr. Zamora was convicted and sentenced this year to 32 years to life in prison. Braeden's mother, Amber Ingram, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life.



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/14/3979532/sacramento-county-child-torture.html#ixzz1alJUgRYc