An infant just seven weeks old died this week from injuries that police suspect are from abuse.
Minnick was suffering from hemorrhaging in the brain, severe damage to her eyes, and rib fractures.
The baby was also malnourished.
Officers believe the damage was done by parents Marcus Alton Minnick and Caricia Lorena Ceballos, both 19. Officers said the parents violently shook the baby and possibly inflicted other forms of abuse, leading to the injuries.
Minnick admitted to police during questioning that he “violently shook” the baby when she was having a “tantrum,” court records show.
Ceballos, meanwhile, told police that she “wanted to smother” her child.
Ceballos didn’t seek medical attention for her daughter.
Ceballos called 911 after she returned to the home as she was out at the time.
Both parents have been charged with first-degree child abuse resulting in death, a felony.
“You cannot handle these cases with kid gloves. These are people who should be locked up for life. They should not be around other children,” the governor said.
“They get frustrated and angry and shake a child, and that is blunt force trauma within the brain. I have no sympathy for those people that do that. There has to be—that life sentence must remain for those that are child abusers that result in death.”
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