A local hospital official alerted the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office to possible child abuse and neglect after a three-year-old girl was examined for head trauma and multiple bruises Tuesday night.
Sheriff’s investigators responded to the hospital, where they learned the child’s mother had left her daughter in the care of her girlfriend, Yvette Piñon-Carbajal, Tuesday morning while the mother went to work.
When she came home, Piñon-Carbajal told the mother her daughter reportedly slipped in the bathtub and had been sleeping most of the day. When the child appeared to have suffered a seizure, the two women brought the child to the hospital.
Shortly after her arrival, the child had to be taken to an El Paso trauma center in a medically-induced coma. She is reportedly in critical condition.
Investigators say Piñon-Carbajal’s account of what happened Tuesday is not consistent with the injuries the child sustained.
Piñon-Carbajal was arrested early Wednesday morning, charged with one count of child abuse and one count of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm. She’s being held at the Doña Ana County Detention Center on a $100,000 cash-only bond.
Information from: Dona Ana County