A man from Indiana has been arrested for allegedly beating a five-month-old baby to death while the mother, his girlfriend, was in the shower and listening to music.
Beaten to death
The 24-year-old suspect, Efrain Gonzales, is now facing murder charges after Anayelli Avina, the five-month-old baby, died last year, just six days after she was admitted to the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital.
The baby had several injuries, according to the doctor. Gonzales has been charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and battery and murder.
The suspect has also been charged with battery resulting in death to a person under 14, aggravated battery and battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person under 14.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, the baby girl died from blunt force injuries to her head. The baby's death as immediately ruled a homicide by the medical examiner's office and the office added that the injuries were caused by severe abuse.
Gonzales was immediately taken into custody by the US Marshals Service, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana. At the time of Gonzales' arrest, the Hammond Police Public Information Officer, Lt. Steve Kellogg, said that they got a 911 call from the mother and she said that something was wrong with her baby.
The fire department responded to the call and they immediately took the baby girl to the hospital. The incident was investigated and it was revealed that on September 29, 2019, the mother of the child told Gonzales that she was going to put the child to sleep and she will go for a shower.
How the murder happened
According to The Sun, the mother took a shower for 12 minutes and she was listening to music. As soon as she got out of the shower, she checked on her baby and found the child gasping for air. The mother picked up the baby and her head flopped back.
The child also had bruising and swelling on the left side of her ear, head, and her left eye was swollen shut. Gonzales lived with the mother, and he is a known cocaine addict and he is also an alcoholic. After she got out of the shower, she found Gonzales watching TV with the volume on full blast.
They were both waiting for the pizza delivery. The mother tried to call 911 so she can rush the baby to the hospital but Gonzales told her to calm down and said that she was making a big deal out of everything.
Gonzales told the police that he heard the baby crying when he was watching TV, he said he tried to grab the child but she slipped out of his hands and struck her head on the metal railing of the bassinet. Since the child was still breathing after the alleged accident, Gonzales thought that she was going to be okay.
The baby was placed on life support as soon as she was in the hospital, but her condition eventually deteriorated. Her mother decided to cut her life support on October 5, 2019. It is still not revealed if the mother was also charged in the case.
The police stated that the three other children of the mother had been placed into the custody of the Indiana Department of Child Services.
