Santa Teresa mom to be retried after hung jury.

Prosecutors say Alma Venzor, 25, of Santa Teresa, will be tried again after a state District Court jury failed to reach a verdict on Thursday on a charge of first-degree intentional child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported today in its online edition.

Venzor was accused of severely abusing her child after she took her baby to a hospital in El Paso in July 2002 telling hospital staff the child was vomiting and had diarrhea, but staff members called authorities when they found signs of shaken-baby syndrome, the Sun-News reported. She is facing a possible 18-year prison sentence.

The mother told Dona County Sheriff's Deputies that the baby was injured in a car seat after she had driven very fast over some speed bumps in the highway, the paper reported.

According to a report on KVIA-TV (ABC-7) in El Paso and Las Cruces earlier this week, the mother told police that the baby was injured as she drove from her home in Santa Teresa to Anthony.

The baby Giovana was a month old at the time of the alleged abuse and suffered bleeding on both sides of her brain and oxygen deprivation, KVIA reported.

Doctors who treated the baby testified there was no way could have caused such severe injuries, the station reported.

The child, who is now almost 4 years old, has almost fully recovered from her injuries, prosecutors told KVIA.
The station also reported that the mother was diagnosed with depression after Giovana was born.

Meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Lahann told the Sun-News Thursday that there will be a new trial, but a date hasn't been set yet.

"We've got a strong case," Lahann told the paper. "We can't fault the jury. They did what they were supposed to do."

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