Angel Martinez, 26, is charged with injury to a child.
According to his charging documents, authorities learned of the alleged abuse on December 12, after Martinez's wife rushed her two-year-old daughter, Yenitze Reyes, to a hospital with possible head injuries. During examination, doctors learned the girl had suffered a skull fracture, hemorrhaging, non-accidental traumatic brain injury and had gone blind as a result of the injury. Doctors also noticed the girl has been healing from a fracture on her arm, tipping them off that she'd been abused previously.
When investigators confronted Martinez, he admitted that he'd rocked "the baby too hard" on several occasions to get her to sleep. He told detectives that he'd shaken her so badly once in September that the toddler began to have seizures and vomit. Yenitze's mother took her to the hospital but lied about what had happened.
Martinez then told investigators that he hurt Yenitze again in October when he grabbed her the arm and swung her away from him, according to court documents. The girl's arm became swollen and red but no one took her to seek medical attention.
Martinez then told investigators he couldn't exactly remember how he'd injured the toddler on December 12, but said he threw her in the air and didn't catch her on the way down. The girl then struck her head on a wooden chair, causing a big bump on the back of her head. In panic, he said tried to "push bump back into her head," and when he couldn't, her mother drove her to the hospital.
However, according to court documents, doctors at the hospital say Yenitze's injuries tell another story. Doctors say her injuries suggest that the girl had been slammed onto a hard surface and someone must have pushed down on her fractured skull to send bone fragments into her brain.
As a result, investigators charged Martinez with a felony. Martinez's wife, Nancy Esmeralda Colomo-Gonzalez, has been charged with injury to a child by omission.
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