"Baby Jane" MEZA - 4 Months - Albuquerque NM

A 4-month old baby is blind and in critical condition at an Albuquerque
hospital, according to investigators with the Bernalillo County
Sheriff's Department who arrested the child's mom Friday.
Angela Meza, 29, made her first appearance before a judge Saturday, charged
with two counts of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm.
Investigators were called to Presbyterian Hospital Wednesday, where Meza and her
husband had taken one of her 4-month-old twins for treatment.
Doctors discovered numerous injuries, including "abusive head trauma", and
several rib and leg fractures, according to the criminal complaint.
Meza's oldest child, 5, told investigators he witnessed his mom
repeatedly choke and hit his baby sister inside their southeast
Albuquerque home, the complaint states.
Investigators say Meza later admitted she had been treating the child roughly - at one point
picking up the baby by the neck, forcing the child to turn purple and cry.
Meza is still in custody at the Metropolitan Detention
Center on a $250,000 bond.
Her husband was not arrested.
He was under the impression the child wasn't feeling well because of a
virus, investigators remarked.

An Albuquerque woman accused of severely abusing her 4-month-old
baby girl spent this Mother’s Day in jail. Investigators said
Sunday that the allegations against Angela Meza, 29, will soon include
the baby’s twin brother after tests showed he has injuries, too. Investigators
described this as one of the worst cases of child abuse they’ve seen in
a long time. The baby girl is at Presbyterian Hospital suffering from
numerous head injuries, broken and fractured ribs and legs. Sergeant
Rachel Azbill with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Special
Victims Unit said the baby girl is going to be blind and may never be
able to walk. “She's going to have many, many issues with her
day-to-day functioning,” Azbill explained. “Whether she'll be able to
walk, we don't know. We don't know if her hearing is affected at this
time and of course she has severe brain injury.” The baby’s twin
brother and their 5-year-old brother are in protective custody. “It's
another heart-breaking story, but at least we got the kids taken out of
the homes, and Angela [Meza] is in jail right now,” Azbill said. The
5-year-old boy told investigators that he saw his mom choke and hit his
baby sister. One day he could be the star witness against his mother.
“If we didn't have the statement from the 5-year-old, I don't think
she would have confessed at all,” Azbill said. Azbill said Meza
confessed to strangling the baby girl and throwing her in her crib, but
she never showed remorse. “She was just very cold, she was very
cold. The eight hours in the interview room, never shed a tear,” Azbill
described. “[She] didn't have really any excuse aside from that she was
stressed.” Meza is jailed on a $250,000 cash or surety bond. Members
of the Special Victims Unit will meet with the Children, Youth and
Families Division Monday to discuss the case. Investigators said they
don’t want to let the children stay with relatives because the
5-year-old may have to testify against his mother later on. The
children’s father has not been charged. Investigators do not believe he
took part in or knew about the abuse.