5-Month-Old Baby Suffers Multiple Fractured Ribs, Brain Injury From Abuse; Mom, Boyfriend Arrested

A couple in Mesquite, New Mexico, has been arrested and is facing child abuse charges over the death of the woman's 5-month-old daughter last month, court documents showed.

Isreal Ramirez and Danielle Lujan, both 23, were arrested Thursday and booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center over the death of Lujan's child in April, local newspaper Albuquerque Journal reported. They were initially being held without bail.

Ramirez was charged with one count of intentional child abuse resulting in the death of a child under 12 and one count of intentional child abuse resulting in great bodily harm of a child under 12, both first-degree felonies.

Lujan, meanwhile, was charged with child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, also a first-degree felony.

According to court documents, Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office deputies were responding to a report of an unresponsive infant in a residence in the 300 block of Las Parcelas Loop past 1 p.m. on April 17 when they were directed to a neighboring house and encountered members of the Doña Ana County Fire Department administering CPR to a child.

The child, identified as Kamilah Hernandez, was described by authorities as purple, unresponsive and not breathing.

Ramirez told detectives he found the child in that state when he checked up on her while Lujan was away. When he failed to revive Hernandez after shaking her and spanking her on the bottom, he instructed Lujan to call 911 as his phone was allegedly broken. He said he then went to a neighbor's house, where he and the neighbor reportedly took turns trying to revive the infant.

The neighbor told police that Hernandez had begun showing signs of life. He claimed Ramirez then picked up the child and was being too rough on her, telling police, "He was beating her up," the filing said.

According to the documents, deputies were told the child had "regained a pulse" but was in critical condition after she was taken by ambulance to Memorial Medical Center.

Doctors at the hospital examined the baby and found she was suffering multiple injuries, including several bruises on her limbs, multiple fractured ribs and a brain injury.

Hernandez was then taken to University Medical Center in El Paso, where she was treated by a doctor who specialized in child abuse. The doctor said the child's injuries were "consistent with long-term child abuse," the records showed.

X-rays revealed fractures to Hernandez's left and right arms, her left leg and her ribs. The infant also suffered fractures and deformities to her spine. Another CT scan revealed brain bleeding, which the doctor said was "consistent with shaken baby syndrome," according to the documents.

It was not revealed how or when Hernandez died, KOB reported.

A forensic pathologist from the Office of the Medical Examiner told deputies the infant suffered from a brain hemorrhage "caused by trauma and not something medically related," court filings said.