A 2-year-old girl in Texas is clinging to life after allegedly being beaten so badly by her mother’s boyfriend that doctors don’t expect her to survive, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Gerardo Gonzalez, 29, and Jazmin Cisneros, 28, have both been charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury. Investigators say Gonzalez repeatedly struck and stomped on the little girl, while Cisneros allegedly stayed quiet and avoided calling for help because she didn’t want him arrested.
Deputies were called to a home in Spring, just north of Houston, on August 6 after reports of a critically injured toddler. The child was flown by air ambulance to a hospital with a fractured skull, a torn liver, a broken pelvis and bruising across her entire body, according to authorities.
Gonzalez initially claimed the girl had slipped in the bathtub and lost consciousness, but investigators say her injuries told a very different story.
Officials say Cisneros, who had taken in the girl and her older sibling for the summer, first noticed something was wrong days earlier when she saw the toddler’s ear looked unusually swollen. When she questioned Gonzalez, he reportedly admitted to hitting the child multiple times — yet no one sought medical help or alerted authorities.
By the following morning, the girl’s face and head were severely swollen with visible bruising. Investigators say Gonzalez later confessed to stomping on her as well, causing the more severe internal injuries.
Gonzalez is being held on a $1 million bond, while Cisneros’ bond has been set at $500,000. Both are expected back in court soon.
At a recent hearing, a Harris County magistrate judge did not hold back, calling the case one of the most disturbing she’s encountered in her long career in criminal law, and noting the seriousness of the allegations.
The investigation remains ongoing as authorities continue piecing together the timeline of what happened inside that home.