HOUSTON – Victalina Mendoza Cruz, who is seven months pregnant, went before a judge Friday after police said she admitted to slapping her boyfriend's two year old son before throwing him on the floor and then leaving him alone in a bathtub.
Cruz was charged with serious bodily injury to a child after the toddler died.
Stunned neighbors are heartbroken.
"I'm sorry to hear that," neighbor Missy Robinson said. "My heart goes out to the parent."
According to court documents, Cruz initially told investigators she fed the toddler, placed him into a bathtub half full of water then went to feed her other children. She claims that when she returned 10 minutes later to check on the boy, she found him face down in the water, pulled him out, performed CPR and dialed 911.
"The ambulance had come. The fire trucks had come. It made a big ol' commotion and everybody came outside to see what it was," neighbor Joseph Villareal said.
Prosecutors said Cruz changed her story after a doctor who treated the 2-year-old at the hospital said he was malnourished and showed obvious signs of abuse.
Police said Cruz told them the boy wouldn't eat so she told him to take a bath and when he began to cry, she shoved him from the back and he fell forward into the door frame of the master bedroom, which caused his injuries.
Cruz is out on bond and cannot have contact with children under the age of 18.
"Now she is seven months pregnant so we'll revisit that issue again in a couple of months," said defense attorney David Bries."