A Santa Ana mother is facing serious charges for allegedly inflicting horrific abuse on her 5-week-old son. According to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, 34-year-old Mirian Jimenez-Olivera has been charged with 11 counts of child abuse, after her infant was discovered with multiple fractures and broken bones.
The baby’s father, Edgar Busto-Rodriguez, also found himself in legal trouble, charged with being an accessory after the fact. Pleading not guilty, they are both being held on $1 million bond each, reportedly for trying to cover up his wife's violent actions against their child. Busto-Rodriguez faces up to three years if convicted, as compared to his wife's potential maximum of 42 years behind bars.
Jimenez-Olivera allegedly inflicted harm upon her son on multiple occasions when he cried, resulting in a fractured skull, knee, elbow, finger, and various ribs, as per KABC. She is accused of starting the abuse when the baby, Esteban, was just 2 weeks old. The egregious nature of the injuries became apparent when the infant was taken to the Children's Hospital of Orange County because he was not moving his left arm.
"A mother's arms should be the safest place for a newborn, fiercely protecting him from the world, but for little Esteban, his mother's arms were the weapons of violence that helped systematically break his little bones into tiny pieces because he wouldn't stop doing what every newborn does — cry," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. The case against Jimenez-Olivera and Busto-Rodriguez is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Bethel Cope-Vega of the Family Protection Unit.
