Mom Held In Death Of Her Infant

Police have charged a 21-year-old Albuquerque woman in the death of her infant daughter, who suffered multiple head fractures and other injuries before paramedics’ futile attempts to save her a few days before Christmas, court records show.

The little girl was a week shy of her first birthday.

June Ortega was in jail late Friday on one felony charge of child abuse resulting in death, according to Metropolitan Detention Center records.

During an initial court appearance on Friday afternoon, Metro Court Judge Edward Benavidez continued Ortega’s bond at $50,000 cash only. Ortega appeared via video monitor from the West Side jail. She did not make a statement to the judge.

Authorities arrested Ortega on Thursday evening after interviewing her at police headquarters Downtown, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metro Court.

Police had initially gone to her apartment on Dec. 21 after she called to say her daughter wasn’t breathing, the complaint states.

Paramedics went to the apartment and tried to revive the child but were unsuccessful, according to the complaint. The child, identified as N.O. in the complaint, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers conducted several interviews at the apartment, according to the complaint. Among those interviewed were Ortega and her boyfriend, 18-year-old Emilio Torres.

Detectives were told the child was fine when the adults went to sleep the night before, the complaint states.

On Dec. 22, APD detectives observed the child’s autopsy, according to the complaint. Doctors determined that the child had four skull fractures, the “most significant” being “old and healing,” and extensive bleeding in her chest and stomach.

According to the complaint, doctors believed the child had been “hit repeatedly with a hammer-like object.”

A deputy medical investigator told detectives that she had noticed a screwdriver in a pocket of the crib the child slept in, the complaint states.

In an interview with police on Thursday, Ortega said that the child “never left my side” and that she didn’t know how the girl had been injured, the complaint states.

Police are searching for Torres for questioning.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal