"Toddler John Doe" - 4 yo/ Accused: Vindel Rose Perez - Phoenix AZ

PHOENIX – A woman faces child abuse charges after her young stepson
was taken to the hospital with a serious injury.
A police report indicates the 4-year-old victim’s mother picked him up
for visitation from his father and stepmom’s home on the evening of Aug. 5.
The mother took the boy to the hospital soon after noticing the child
did not want to eat, was throwing up and complained about abdominal pain.
An MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, was done on the boy and doctors discovered he had a lacerated liver.

During initial questioning the step-mom, identified as Vindel Rose Perez,
30, told detectives the boy had fallen down a flight of stairs a couple
of days before when his father was not home.
Police say the boy did not have other injuries consistent with his liver
injury as a result of the supposed fall. A forensic pediatrician later
determined the lacerated liver was as a result of direct blunt force trauma.
During a second questioning, Perez admitted to striking the boy on his
left side twice while his father was not home. When she demonstrated to
officers how she had hit the boy her fist was balled up.
There have been incidents of alleged child abuse involving the boy and
the suspect in the past but there was reportedly no proof against the suspect.
The child did not require surgery and was placed by Child Protective Services with his mother.
Perez faces one count of child abuse.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/4-year-old-suffers-liver-laceration-stepmom-arrested-128350133.html