Houston authorities have charged a pregnant 24-year-old woman in connection with the Feb. 6 death of her boyfriend’s 2-year-old boy.
Victalina Mendoza Cruz is accused of injury to a child after she told local police she slapped Keaton Veerasamy and threw the defenseless child on the floor before leaving him alone in a bathtub. She later found him unconscious and called 911, KPRC-TV reported.
Cruz, who had been looking after the child since her boyfriend left for work in Louisiana on Jan. 11, changed her story after a doctor who cared for the boy at the Texas Children’s Hospital told investigators that the boy’s bruised, malnourished body displayed telltale signs of abuse, the Houston Chronicle reported.
After initially not mentioning any physical harm, Cruz later told investigators that the child hadn’t eaten very much of an egg on Jan. 27 and she instructed him to take a bath. When he began to cry, she shoved the young boy, causing him to fall and hit his head on the frame of a door. She then slapped the toddler and threw him on the ground before placing him in the bath, according to court documents cited by KHOU.
Cruz was released on a $50,000 bail on Friday and she’ll face a trial on the charges.
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“Now she is seven months pregnant, so we’ll revisit that issue again in a couple of months,” Cruz’s attorney David Bries told KPRC-TV.
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