Nick Pfosi/Reuters
The mom of a 5-year-old and the mom’s boyfriend have been arrested Thursday after the kid died from what authorities deemed accidents sustained throughout extended and excessive bodily abuse. Jose Angel Ruiz, 25, and Katrina Mendoza, 22, have been every charged with one rely of felony harm to a toddler.
Mendoza introduced her unresponsive daughter to Southwest Basic Hospital in San Antonio on Feb. 7. Police referred to as to the scene famous in depth and horrific proof of torture on the sufferer’s physique in an affidavit, writing that the kid’s accidents seemingly arose from “steady bodily abuse over a time period,” in response to native station Fox 29. The precise reason behind loss of life has not been launched.
Mendoza described a litany of abuse allegedly perpetrated by Ruiz. Mendoza stated she had referred to as her boyfriend for assist disciplining the 5-year-old. She informed police that the punishment started to escalate into abuse roughly three weeks earlier than her daughter’s loss of life. Mendoza, the sufferer, and Mendoza’s 6-year-old daughter had moved in together with her boyfriend across the identical time.
She stated she noticed Ruiz shovel canine feces into the sufferer’s mouth as he yelled on the little one. He did the identical factor with a sock soaked in urine, she stated. He yanked the sock from the kid’s mouth so exhausting that he pulled out two of her tooth, Mendoza added. Mendoza additionally stated that Ruiz hit the kid, generally with a belt and generally with palms that bore a number of rings, which inflicted cuts. The 6-year-old little one corroborated Mendoza’s story, in response to the affidavit.
The kid was lacking giant patches of hair from her head and had suffered extreme bruising and swelling throughout her physique, together with cuts and scratches. Her palms, particularly, have been bruised and swollen from defensive wounds, police stated. A number of of her toenails have been gone. The affidavit reads, “The sufferer’s legs have been lined with bruises, a few of which seemed to be patterned, which is what is often seen when belts or different objects are used to inflict harm.”
For his half, Ruiz informed police that he solely “slapped her on the ass” and put the kid in a nook. He claimed the sufferer’s mom had carried out the larger portion of the abuse and that her 6-year-old sister had pulled out the hair.