In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, tragedy struck when a 1-year-old boy, now known to be Santiago Ledo, was found unresponsive with facial bruising and later pronounced dead at the hospital. As reported by The Boston Globe, the horrific Sunday morning discovery at an Arthur Street apartment has led to four arrests, including the baby's parents and two other women staying at the same address.
NBC affiliate WJAR and The Boston Globe identified the baby's father, 25-year-old Joao Resendes, as facing charges of manslaughter, child abuse, and child endangerment, while the baby's mother, Carolina Vieira Ledo, 22, his aunt Daniela Ledo, 25, and 32-year-old Carla Sousa, Resendes' girlfriend, were each charged with felony child endangerment. The arraignment revealed no plea from Resendes, customary for felony cases, and he appeared dazed answering the judge's questions through a Portuguese interpreter, his bail set at $100,000.
Amidst the unfolding courtroom procedures, and the accusations, Adrian Viveiros, standing in as an informal uncle to the deceased child, expressed his disgust, especially with the judge not holding Resendes without bail, having told The Boston Globe, "Santiago 'is a baby, I just don't understand how somebody could do that to his own child.'"
The sense of community grief is tangible as Viveiros, who noted the disparity between the outward appearances at social gatherings and the secreted agony within the home, remarked of the father, "When he was with us, he was a good person," hinting at a hidden turmoil that eventually culminated in the baby's loss. Each of the accused women were released on $10,000 surety bail after their arraignment, but it was Viveiros, in a campaign to memorialize the boy, who had established a GoFundMe intending to arrange Santiago's funeral, solely from the child's family, Viveiros was the only family member present in the courtroom during Resendes’ arraignment.
