A Cumberland County grand jury has indicted a mother and her boyfriend after a 4-year-old child was hospitalized with severe brain injuries earlier this year.
21-year-old Elinette S. Muniz was charged with aggravated assault and child endangerment after the pair brought her unconscious daughter to a hospital in Mullica Hill on February 24. The boyfriend, 27-year-old Ricardo Ferrera, was charged recently with endangering for delaying efforts to get the child care.
He is not the child’s father.
Doctors found multiple injuries, including bleeding on the brain, damage to the girl’s chest, bruises all over her body and cuts to her nose and mouth.
The child was placed on a ventilator and transferred to a children’s hospital. She continues to recover, according to a family member.
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Muniz initially told doctors the child fell from a bunk bed, but the injuries didn’t match that explanation, authorities previously said. A search of the couple’s apartment turned up multiple pieces of bloodied children’s clothing and blood on the walls of the girl’s bedroom.
Muniz then admitted striking the child in the mouth and nose hard enough to draw blood, authorities said. She claimed injuries to her head and body resulted from multiple falls because she suffered from seizures, authorities said.
The couple told investigators they took the child to a hospital in Gloucester County, rather than one closer to the apartment, because they didn’t want Muniz’s family to find out, according to prosecutors.
Ferrera is not accused of assaulting the child, but police looked at his actions in getting help for the child.
With Ferrara driving, the couple stopped at a gas station and liquor store on their way to the hospital with the unconscious girl on February 24, prosecutors said, adding that they never called 911 to get her help.
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During the investigation, police found that a Google search was conducted on a phone belonging to the couple at 1:46 p.m. on February 24 that queried, “How long does it take for a child to come back fully after fainting?” Investigators concluded that the child must have been unconscious at that time, according to the affidavit filed against Ferrera.
Surveillance video from a liquor store in Vineland shows Ferrera in the business around 5:30 p.m. that day, prior to their arrival at the hospital. “Ferrera delayed medical care … and further endangered her life and welfare,” investigators stated in the affidavit.
The grand jury indicted Muniz last week on second-degree charges of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Ferrera was indicted on a third-degree charge of endangering.
Muniz remains jailed pending trial on her charges, while Ferrera is free.
The girl’s biological father is handling all medical decisions as the child continues receiving care at a New Jersey rehab facility, according to her great-aunt, Anita Simms-Doughty.
“She is progressing amazingly,” Simms-Doughty said Wednesday.
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