ESTRADA Children - 2 and 4 yo - Murrieta CA

A mother of two with a history of child abuse pleaded not guilty today
to inflicting corporal injury on a child and torture charges for
allegedly forcing her 2-year-old daughter into hot water to punish the
toddler.

Diana Vicky Estrada, 24, also faces domestic
violence causing great bodily injury and serious felony allegations.
She was arrested Sunday and booked at Robert Presley Detention Center
in Riverside.

She faces life in prison if convicted on all charges.

Riverside
County Superior Court Judge Judith Clark -- who sentenced Estrada to
probation and six months of jail time after she pleaded guilty to child
abuse in 2008 -- kept her bail at $1 million and ordered her back to
court Sept. 11 for a felony settlement conference.

A preliminary hearing was tentatively set for Oct. 2.

According
to court documents, Estrada's original $50,000 bail was raised to $1
million under a penal code statute that calls for an increase in bail
if a magistrate determines a domestic violence victim must be protected
from a defendant, or if the defendant is a flight risk.

Deputies
were called to investigate a possible child abuse case about 2 p.m.
Sunday by staffers at an Urgent Care Clinic in Lake Elsinore, after the
child was brought in with severe burns on her lower body, according to
sheriff's Sgt. Patrick Chavez.

The girl was later transferred to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, which has a burn unit, Chavez said.

When
investigators questioned the mother, she initially said her daughter
accidentally fell into a hot bathtub in which she was cleaning
curtains, according to Chavez.

"Upon further investigation,
it was determined Estrada held the 2-year- old in hot water as a
disciplinary measure," Chavez said.

The child was apparently injured last Wednesday, and her burns became infected in the ensuing days, the sergeant said.

Estrada's other daughter, who is 4, was taken into protective custody, Chavez said.

In 2008, Estrada pleaded guilty to child abuse with great bodily injury and serious felony allegations.

Authorities
were called to Rancho Springs Medical Center in 2007, after she showed
up with her older daughter, who was treated for a urinary tract
infection, multiple bruises and dehydration.

Doctors who
examined the child found evidence of healing fractures of both arms,
with evidence that the limbs were broken at different times, according
to sheriff's officials.

Records indicate that the child had
failed to thrive under the care of her mother, gaining only two pounds
between Dec. 12, 2005, and March 10, 2006, according to a declaration
in support of an arrest warrant prepared by sheriff's Investigator
Darin Gray.

After the investigation was begun and the child
was put in the care of her maternal great-grandmother, she began
gaining weight. Previously, when deputies began investigating the case,
she had been too weak to stand or walk, Gray wrote.

Estrada
was sentenced to 48 months probation and 180 days in jail on the
weekend work release program. She also was required to take parenting
classes and enroll in a program for child batterers.

A few
months after her sentencing, Estrada asked for her work release to be
modified to house arrest, then to house arrest in San Diego. In early
2009, the Judge Clark changed her jail term back to work release,
though it was unclear why.

Estrada has since allegedly
violated parole on the work release program and is scheduled for a
probation violation hearing on Sept. 11, court documents show.