ABRIEANA RENE MACE - 2 Months (2010) - Sioux City NE

Police are investigating the death of a
2-month-old Nebraska girl, and two people who were with her have been
charged with child abuse.

South Sioux City police say officers found Abrieana Rene Mace dead at her home Tuesday afternoon.

Her mother, Nicole Ramirez, and a man who was
in the home, Lorenzo Guzman, have been charged with child abuse. Police
are still trying to determine the relationship between Guzman and
Abrieana.

Guzman and Ramirez are being held in the Dakota County Jail, and it's not clear if they have an attorney yet.

South Sioux City police Chief Scot Ford says authorities are still trying to figure out how the girl died.

He says two other young children who were in the home are in state custody.

A two month old baby is
dead and now South Sioux City police have opened a criminal
investigation. Authorities say the child's parents might be to blame.

The body of a two and a half month old girl
was found at a South Sioux City home and now two people have been
arrested for possibly causing her death.

Just after noon yesterday, South Sioux City
police rushed to this home on B street after receiving a 911 call from
someone who heard a female inside the house pleading for help for her
baby. When officers arrived they found the parents inside and the baby,
already dead on the seat of a recliner.

"There were some questions about the nature
of the demise of the child and the officer determined it was appropriate
to file charges," Said Scot Ford, the South Sioux City Chief of Police.

Authorities say Nicole Ramirez and Lorenzo
Guzman claim to be the baby's parents. Both have been arrested and
charged with child abuse. The baby's cause of death hasn't been
determined yet but officials felt an investigation needed to be done.

"There were just physical indications at the
scene that the death might not be natural. We were not able to make an
actual determination of death at the scene and an autopsy is being
performed today," said Ford.

Police say results from the autopsy could
take a couple of weeks. Two other children were in the home at the time.
They're currently under the city's custody.

A South Sioux City man accused of child abuse causing the death of a 2-month-old girl will now face a reduced charge of manslaughter.
At a hearing Tuesday afternoon, Judge Robert Burkard said prosecutors had filed a request to amend Lorenzo Guzman's case to a charge of manslaughter. Guzman, whose attorney did not object, will face that charge at a preliminary hearing set for Feb. 11.
He was originally charged with child abuse causing death, a Class IB Felony punishable by up to life in prison, in connection with the Aug. 17 death of Abrieana Renee Mace.
Manslaughter is a Class 3 Felony punishable by one to 20 years in prison.
Guzman was accused in court documents of putting Abrieana on her side in a chair at his home and propping up a bottle so she could drink. Authorities alleged that he and the child's mother, Nicole Ramirez, did not check on the girl until they found her dead several hours later.
Ramirez, also charged with child abuse causing death, was scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon in Dakota County District Court. She and her attorney were not present Tuesday afternoon, but court officials said the case may have been addressed earlier in the day.
Online court documents indicate state prosecutors also filed a motion to amend Ramirez' case, but the documents did not identify the new charge or charges.
An official from the Dakota County Attorney's Office said she had no comment on the status of Ramirez' case.

A South Sioux City woman now faces a reduced
charge of manslaughter in connection with her daughter's death.
Nicole Ramirez, 24, has been jailed since her arrest last summer
on a charge of child abuse resulting in death for the Aug. 17 death
of her 2-month-old daughter, Abrieana Renee Mace.
Dakota County Public Defender John Loos Jr., who represents
Ramirez, said Wednesday that prosecutors have filed a new complaint
reducing the charge to manslaughter.
Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Ramirez and Lorenzo
Guzman left Abrieana unattended in a chair in Guzman's house for
seven hours. They accused Guzman, who now also faces a reduced
charge of manslaughter, of laying the infant on her side in a
rocking chair and propping a bottle up so she could drink.
Authorities say the infant was found dead, lying on her stomach,
several hours later and likely asphyxiated.
Ramirez is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing next month on
the manslaughter charge, Loos said.
Manslaughter is a Class 3 felony punishable by one to 20 years
in prison. Ramirez had faced 20 years to life for the charge of
child resulting in death.
An official at the Dakota County Jail said Ramirez was being
held Wednesday in lieu of $250,000 and $50,000 bonds.

An attorney for a man charged with
manslaughter in the death of an infant who was found lifeless in a
reclining chair told a judge today he will show the baby died of
sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.
At the same hearing in Dakota County District Court, an attorney
for the baby's mother, also charged with manslaughter, said his
client was not responsible for the death because she did not place
the child in the chair.
Lorenzo Guzman, 35, and Nicole Ramirez, 24, appeared before
Judge John Samson for a three-hour preliminary hearing in the case.
Police say Guzman placed the baby, Abrieana Renee Mace, in a
recliner and propped up a bottle so she could feed about 5 a.m.
Aug. 17 and that no one checked on her for seven hours.
An autopsy report lists positional asphyxiation as the cause of
death. The 11-week-old baby died in Guzman's South Sioux City home,
where Ramirez and three of her children, including Abrieana, were staying.
Guzman and Ramirez had originally been charged with child abuse
resulting in death, a felony that carries a penalty of 20 years to
life in prison. Last month, those charges were reduced to
manslaughter, which is punishable by one to 20 years in prison.
South Sioux City Police Officer Shawn Jensen was the first
officer to respond to the 12:35 p.m. Aug. 17 call, after Ramirez
and Guzman reportedly awoke about 11:30 a.m., gave one of Ramirez's
other children a haircut and, an hour later, found the baby dead in
the chair. Jensen testified Friday that when he arrived, it was
obvious Abreana had been dead for several hours.
He testified about a conversation between Guzman and an
emergency responder at the scene, in which Guzman said the baby had
been found face down in the chair.
Officer Andrew Backman questioned Guzman in the police station
later that day and testified Friday that Guzman told him Ramirez
had gone to sleep at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 16 and that he went to sleep
about 12:30 a.m. At that time, Abrieana had been strapped in a car
seat in their bedroom, and when Guzman awoke briefly at 5 a.m., he
took the baby into the living room, placed her in the recliner,
propped her up and left a bottle nearby.
Backman said Guzman told of waking at 9 a.m. when one of
Ramirez's children stirred in the living room. Guzman reportedly
went into the room, saw nothing wrong with Abrieana, and returned
to sleep in the bedroom until he and Ramirez awoke at 11:30 a.m.
Their first action reportedly was to give a haircut to one of the
two older children, and they found Abrieana unresponsive around 12:30 p.m.
"(Guzman) said (Ramirez) was a very heavy sleeper, she never got
up at night," Backman said. "That was his responsibility, when they were at his house," Backman said.
Abrieana's father, Vernon Mace, lives in Wagner, S.D., and
Ramirez periodically had her children live with Mace and then
Guzman, with whom she had an off-and-on relationship, Backman said.
Backman said Ramirez told him during interrogation that Abrieana
had a habit of stopping breathing, but he said a talk with the
clinic doctor in Wagner revealed that the physician had never been told that.
Dakota County Public Defender John Loos Jr., who represents
Ramirez, asked Backman if both people in the house should have been
expected to check on the child.
"It would seem to me the burden would fall on the mother," Backman responded.
Nebraska State Patrol officer Doug Johnson, who responded with
Backman on that August day, said the baby had been left alone from
roughly 5 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. "The child had been left unattended for seven hours," Johnson said.
Loos asked whether a parent should check hourly on infants under
their care. Johnson said he and his wife checked on their own
children frequently, before Samson halted that line of questioning.
Later, as he ended his remarks for the day, Loos said that
although he respected the testimony of the policemen, "I don't
believe it is a mother's job ... to get up every time, every night."
Johnson testified that he'd investigated roughly eight cases of
people dying of positional asphyxiation but that this was the first
involving a child. He said people died by that means after being
intoxicated or with other complicating factors.
Under questioning by special prosecutor Sandra Allen of the
Nebraska Attorney General's Office, Johnson said Dr. Thomas
Bennett, a former Iowa state medical examiner, also filed a report
on the baby's death. Bennett agreed with the coroner's conclusion, Johnson said.
"This was not a SIDS death, this was definitely asphyxiation,"
Johnson, said summarizing Bennett's report.
An attorney for Guzman, Jerry Soucie, of the Nebraska Commission
on Public Advocacy in Lincoln, said he will use the testimony of a
Colorado doctor to show the baby died of SIDS.
Attorneys for both defendants have until March 1 to file briefs in the case.

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_9771454c-3643-11e0-964d-001cc4c002e0.html

A South Sioux City man charged in the death of a 2-month-old baby is
expected to plead no contest to a reduced charge at a hearing next week.James
Mowbray is the lawyer for Lorenzo Guzman, 35. Mowbray said Wednesday
that Guzman will change his plea Monday to no contest. The charge was
reduced from felony manslaughter to misdemeanor negligent child abuse.An
autopsy shows that the baby died of asphyxiation last August after
rolling over and lying face down in a recliner. Police said she was
propped up in the chair and wasn't checked for hours.
The baby's mother, Nicole Ramirez, also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge
and was sentenced to 160 days in jail.
Mowbray said Guzman was not the little girl's father.

A South Sioux City man charged in the death of a 2-month-old baby has changed his plea.
35-year-old Lorenzo Guzman pled "no contest" late
this morning to a charge of negligent child abuse in the death last year
of Abrieana Rene Mace.
Guzman earlier had pled not guilty to "child abuse resulting in death."
An autopsy determined the infant likely suffocated
after she rolled over in a recliner in Guzman's South Sioux City home,
and was left unattended for several hours.
Guzman's defense attorney says it was a tough decision for his client to enter into a plea.
"Due to the risk of the possibility of a
conviction, everyone felt that it was in everyone's best interest to get
the case over with. By him entering a plea of no contest he made it
perfectly clear that he still does not believe nor do I that he did
anything wrong, we still believe that the baby died of natural causes,"
Defense Attorney James Mowbray said.
Guzman was sentenced more than seven months in jail, he will get credit for half of that time.
Last month, the child's mother was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading "no contest" to a charge of child abuse.
http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14425722