A Tarrant County jury sentenced Ivan Ssenengo to 27 years in prison this week after finding him guilty of aggravated assault of a family member causing serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon, a case rooted in the assault of a two-month-old infant that left the baby with multiple skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury. The sentence stems from an assault that prosecutors say happened in March 2025.
According to the Tarrant County DA, Ssenengo was tried in the 213th District Court, where court trial records confirm the case was formally charged as injury to a child with intent to cause serious bodily injury or mental impairment, per Tarrant County court records. Defense attorneys Rob Hayden and Rob Cowie represented Ssenengo during the trial, the same records show. The 213th District Court sits on the 8th floor of the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center at 401 W. Belknap St. in Fort Worth, where State District Judge Michael Ferry presides over felony cases.
Every Child Matters. pic.twitter.com/PV0P0cIzSY
— Tarrant County DA (@TarrantCountyDA) August 11, 2026
Assistant District Attorneys Steven Elliott and Alexander Trono prosecuted the case, with Investigator Brent Ezelle and Victim Coordinator Carma Anderson also assigned to it, the Tarrant County DA's post states. The office publicly thanked Detective Thedford and the Arlington Police Department, which investigated the case, for their work and their commitment to community safety. Ssenengo faced a first-degree felony penalty range, since Texas Penal Code § 22.04 classifies intentionally or knowingly causing serious bodily injury to a child under 15 as a first-degree felony carrying a sentencing range of 5 to 99 years or life in prison, along with a fine of up to $10,000, according to legal analysis of the statute.
How Tarrant County Prosecutes Crimes Against Children
The Tarrant County District Attorney's Special Victims Unit handles crimes against children through multi-disciplinary teams that bring together local police departments, Cook Children's Medical Center, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, and Alliance for Children, according to Tarrant County. Under District Attorney Phil Sorrells, who has led the office since January 2023, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office processes more than 45,000 criminal case filings annually out of the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, per the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.
The Arlington Police Department, which led the on-the-ground investigation in this case, maintains specialized investigative units alongside a Victim Services Unit that provides crisis intervention, social service referrals, and courtroom accompaniment for crime victims throughout investigations and trials, per the City of Arlington. Assistant District Attorney Steven Elliott, who prosecuted the Ssenengo case, was also credited this week with assisting in the international extradition from Mexico of a mother charged in a 1997 cold-case death of her toddler daughter in Tarrant County, a case Hoodline covered in its report on the Fort Worth mom caught in Mexico.
A Pattern of Severe Child Abuse Cases in Tarrant County
This case follows a string of severe child abuse prosecutions across Tarrant County in recent months. In November 2025, a Tarrant County jury sentenced 34-year-old Martin Gonzalez to 50 years in prison for aggravated assault of a family member and injury to a child by omission following a trial involving severe physical abuse against a 4-year-old in Fort Worth, as Hoodline reported at the time. Just over a week ago, an Arlington man, Carlos Aguilera, received 53 years for sex abuse of young relatives following an Arlington Police Department investigation and Tarrant County DA prosecution.
State-level numbers show why local officials have kept pushing for lengthy sentences in cases involving infants and young children. Texas child protective services completed investigations involving 245,536 children alleged to be subjects of maltreatment in 2024, down from 280,483 the year before, according to federal data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In a statewide child fatality analysis, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services reported that Tarrant County recorded 13 child maltreatment fatalities in a single year, noting that fatal physical abuse most often involved blunt force trauma inflicted by a parent or partner.
Open questions remain in the Ssenengo case, including the precise relationship between Ssenengo and the infant beyond the family violence classification under which he was charged, as well as the child's long-term medical prognosis. Neither detail has been made public in court records reviewed for this report.
