A Rosemead couple suspected of killing their 1-year-old daughter are both in custody, sheriff’s officials announced Monday, Nov. 25.
The baby died Nov. 15 at a hospital, a week after she was rushed there.
On Nov. 9, deputies went on a call of a baby not breathing at a home in the the 2600 block of Strathmore Avenue around 7 p.m., found the child in medical distress and took her to a hospital, according to a sheriff’s statement.
Medical staff told deputies the infant had multiple injuries, sheriff’s Lt. Steve De Jong said.
The sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services were notified. A brother of the baby was placed in protective custody on Nov. 9, De Jong said.
Investigators arrested the mother, 20-year-old Leslie Garcia, on Nov. 12.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged her on Nov. 14 with one count of assault on a child resulting in the child becoming comatose due to brain injury or suffering paralysis and one count of child endangerment, court records show. Garcia has not been arrested for the alleged murder of her daughter.
The medical examiner’s office has not yet publicly identified the baby.
Sheriff’s homicide detectives, who took over the case after the infant died Nov. 15, uncovered additional evidence linking Garcia’s boyfriend, 21-year-old Jonathan Salazar, to the case. De Jong didn’t reveal what this evidence was.
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Detectives on Nov. 22 arrested Salazar on suspicion of murder. Investigators plan to present their case against Salazar and Garcia to the DA’s Office on Tuesday, De Jong said.
They are not looking for other suspects, he added.
As of Monday, Salazar was being held at the sheriff’s Temple station jail in lieu of $5 million bail.
Garcia remains in custody at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood on $1 million bail. She is scheduled to appear Dec. 18 at Pomona Superior Court on the child abuse charges.
Detectives are asking anyone with information about the case to call the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or go to lacrimestoppers.org
