People v. Soto CA2/6

FACTS

Soto, the mother of J., a four-month-old boy, was the “primary caregiver.” One morning Soto told her sister that she needed to take the baby to the hospital because he would not stop crying. Soto took the baby to St. John’s Regional Medical Center twice. On the second visit the medical staff determined that the baby was having seizures. Soto and the baby were transported by ambulance to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. Philip Stanley, a pediatric radiologist at Children’s Hospital, reviewed x-rays of the baby’s injuries. He determined the baby had a recent skull fracture, rib fractures, a hand injury, a healing fracture of the knee, a tibia fracture consistent with someone having shaken the baby, and a left ankle fracture. He determined these injuries are “indicative” of “nonaccidental trauma.” Eugenia Ho, a pediatrician neurocritical care physician at Children’s Hospital, treated J. for seizures. Soto told her that the baby suffered injuries in a fall. Ho determined the baby had an “acute brain injury.” That injury caused the seizures. Ho testified the baby also had ”fractures within the body” and “retinal hemorrhages.” These injuries were the result of “nonaccidental…