Authorities in New Mexico have charged a mother along with three other suspects over the fatal abuse of a 3-year-old girl who succumbed to her wounds at a hospital Saturday.
Kerri Anne Santos, 31, brought the dying girl to an Albuquerque hospital and told doctors she fell off a toilet.
The toddler was pronounced dead at the scene with doctors suspecting abuse in the death after noticing bruises in different stages of healing and pressure marks on the victim’s ankles.
During questioning, Santos told detectives that she fled with her three children from an abusive relationship in Massachusetts and moved into James Welch’s studio apartment in Albuquerque.
On Friday, Christina Pena-Cantor who also lived at the apartment ordered her 28-year-old son Austin Bing to toe the girl down on a bed following an argument.
Police determined Santos had been using drugs around her three kids. She, Pena-Cantor, Bing, and Welch were arrested and charged with child abuse.
“Today’s tragic news outrages me as a legislator and it disgusts me and bothers me very deeply as a mother,” New Mexico State Sen. Crystal Brantley said.
“New Mexico needs to adopt stricter criminal laws and that no one can come into this state and abuse any child in our state and have that tolerated.”
