HOUSTON – A babysitter and her boyfriend are facing charges after police said he shook a 7-month-old baby in southeast Houston.
"It breaks my heart," said mother Nancy Rico.
Rico's nightmare started with a phone call from her daughter's babysitter in February.
"She was telling me that the baby was asleep and that she couldn't wake up," said Rico.
Paramedics took then 7-month-old Allison to the hospital and when Rico got there, her daughter was having a seizure.
"As a mother I couldn't help her. I couldn't pick her up to make her stop," she said.
Doctors told Rico that Allison's injuries were not an accident.
"They told me that she had blood in the back of her eyes and in the back of her brain and that it was due to somebody shaking her. Somebody shook her," she said.
Court documents said the babysitter, Wendy Amezcua, left her house on Falvey Street in southeast Houston for about 20 minutes on February 12 and the baby with her boyfriend, Jason Mendoza. Investigators believe Mendoza violently shook baby Allison.
"How could he do this to her," said Rico.
On Tuesday, police arrested Mendoza, 21, for injury to a child and Amezcua, 20, for endangering a child.
"I hope they pay for what they did. It's not fair that he's out on bond, out there free having fun while we're here suffering with her."
Allison was in the hospital for three months. At 14 months old, almost daily, she's in a doctor's office or in therapy and she isn't a normal toddler.
"Right now, she can't sit up, she can't crawl, she's learning how to drink her bottle again," she said.
It's too early to say how Allison will be affected in the future. Still, Rico was hopeful she'll have the life she deserves.
"Now she's doing way better. She's happier," Rico said. "I know she's gonna get better."