SANTA ANA, California (NV) – A Garden Grove stepmother was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison Friday, August 16, for beating her husband’s 2-year-old son to the point of paralysis, according to City News Service and CBS News.
On July 11, defendant Noelia Ayala, 24, was convicted of conspiracy to commit torture and assault causing coma or paralysis of a child under 8 years old, both felonies, with an enhanced sentence for causing serious injury to a child under 5 years old.
Defendant Ayala was credited with 1,077 days of jail time since his arrest.
Co-defendant Alberto Aragon, 36, the child’s biological father, is awaiting trial on felony charges of child abuse and child endangerment. Aragon is accused of delaying emergency medical care for his child, prosecutors said. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of six years in state prison.
Defendant Ayala brutally beat her stepchild because she was angry that Mr. Aragon kept leaving the house and kept mentioning the child’s biological mother, the prosecutor said.
On August 13, 2019, when emergency personnel arrived at the family’s Garden Grove home, they found the child passing out and then waking up and coughing up blood. Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Orange County later discovered the child had a brain bleed so severe that blood was pouring out of his ears and he had to undergo emergency surgery, according to prosecutors.
The child also had bruises all over his body, multiple bite marks on his lips and a cut on his head, the prosecutor said.
Mr Aragon claimed his son was injured in a fall in the pool, but doctors determined some of the injuries were old and healing, the prosecutor said.
Police later identified Ms. Ayala as the child abuse suspect and arrested her in January 2022, when she used a fake name to work at a fast-food restaurant in Irvine.
The victim, now 7 years old, was paralyzed on the left side of his body and suffered severe brain damage, according to prosecutors. (Th.Long)