North Texas man beat, smothered and choked 1-year-old before baby died, cops say
A Grand Prairie man is accused of beating, smothering and choking a 1-year-old boy before the baby died last Friday, according to an affidavit supporting warrants for the arrest of the man and his girlfriend, who is the child’s mother.
The affidavit, obtained by Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV, details how the child’s mother, 20-year-old Susaneth Pazarez-Nunez, told police she had seen her partner harm the child.
Pazarez-Nunez and her partner, 23-year-old Fernando Vega-Diaz, had been dating each other for eight months and living together since Oct. 29, according to the affidavit.
Emergency medical services responded to the couple’s home in the early morning hours of Nov. 21 after receiving a report of CPR in progress on the child.
Paramedics noted the infant was unconscious, not breathing and had bruising on his face, according to the affidavit. The child was taken to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where he was later pronounced dead.
Pazarez-Nunez told police that the child “appeared to be in discomfort” earlier in the evening and was “inflamed” in his torso area.
Out of fear for the child, Pazarez-Nunez told police, she did not go to sleep that night, and noticed at around 1 a.m. that the boy’s lips were blue and his breathing abnormal.
Neither the mother nor Vega-Diaz asked first responders for any information on the child’s condition after he was taken to the hospital, police wrote in the affidavit.
In a later police interview, Pazarez-Nunez said that her boyfriend began to abuse the boy a few days after the couple moved in together in October.
Vega-Diaz hit the baby in the face and abdomen and beat him with a cable, the mother told police. Pazarez-Nunez also witnessed him smothering the child’s mouth and nose with a blanket and choking the child with his hand, she said.
The mother reported seeing Vega-Diaz bite the child as well, according to the affidavit.
Pazarez-Nunez said she tried to intervene, but she was also hit and strangled by Vega-Diaz, who told her he would hit her “by fault of the child,” police wrote. When asked if she ever thought of reporting the abuse after witnessing it, she said she was afraid to seek help.
In his police interview, Vega-Diaz admitted to abusing the boy because “the child would not stop crying or yelling,” according to the affidavit.
During the child’s autopsy, examiners noted contusions on his heart and lungs, a lacerated liver with a detached portion, blood in the abdominal cavity and injury to the diaphragm, according to the report.
Pazarez-Nunez and Vega-Diaz both face first-degree felony charges of injury to a child causing death. They were being held in the Grand Prairie Jail with immigration detainers.
