Toddler "Jane" Gonzalez - 2 yo - Santa Maria (N of Vandenburg AFB) CA

Parents will stand trial in torture of toddler

Thursday, November 4, 2010 10:52 pm

A judge ruled Wednesday that two Santa Maria parents will stand trial for felony child abuse and endangerment after he heard gruesome testimony about serious burns inflicted on a 2-year-old child, allegedly at the hands of her mother using scalding water.

Superior Court Judge Edward Bullard listened to the testimony of investigators from the Santa Maria Police Department concerning the April incident before he ordered Lorena Arenas, 24, to stand trial on charges of torture, child abuse with great bodily injury and felony child endangerment.

Jose Gonzalez , 41, the child’s father, was held to answer a charge of felony child endangerment at the conclusion of the preliminary hearing in Santa Maria.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Kevin Duffy announced in court Wednesday he is also filing a charge of felony child endangerment against both defendants for allegedly leaving their other child, a 3-year-old girl, home alone while Arenas took the 2-year-old to the hospital for treatment of her burns.

Bullard did not rule in court Wednesday whether there is sufficient evidence to hold the defendants to answer the new charge. That determination will be made at a later date.

Michael Huffman, a detective with the Santa Maria Police Department, said under questioning by Duffy that Arenas admitted to scalding her 2-year-old daughter’s hands in hot water after she became upset because the girl was playing with makeup. The injuries, which included third-degree burns, were so traumatic that the girl was taken to Sherman Oaks Hospital burn center for specialized treatment.

“She told me that she intentionally burned her daughter’s hands with hot water,” Huffman said.

Arenas told Huffman that she held the girl’s hands under running water in the bathroom for about five minutes, according to the detective. He said he tested the water temperature at the apartment, and it reached 135 degrees after four minutes when turned as hot as it could go.

Gonzalez was home at the time of the incident, and refused to drive the toddler to the hospital when Arenas, realizing the severity of her daughter’s injuries, asked him to, Huffman testified.

Arenas did not call 9-1-1, but instead walked to a nearby drugstore to buy ointment to treat the burns. “She said that she was afraid of getting in trouble for what she had done,” Huffman said.

The child cried for at least 11 hours straight, having been burned the early evening of April 14 and not taken to Marian Medical Center until about 4:15 a.m. April 15. At that time, Arenas walked with the girl several miles to the hospital, according to Huffman and other prosecution witnesses.

Marisa Tanore, who now works with the District Attorney’s Office but was formerly an investigator with the Santa Maria Police Department, testified that Arenas told her at Marian that her3-year-old child was home alone because Gonzalez had to go to work.

Child Welfare Services took custody of the 3-year-old at the home, Tanore said.

Huffman said Arenas told him she had used hot water for discipline previously, and that she also had used cold water to punish both her children.

“She said that normally she doesn’t torture her kids like that,”he added.

The defendants, who remain in County Jail, are set to return to court Nov. 18.