Vista

A 17-month-old Vista boy was bludgeoned to death and his 34-year-old adoptive mother arrested, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said Friday.

Cherie M. Adams, 34, of the 900 block of Lupine Hills in Vista, was arrested Thursday night at her home in the death of her adoptive son, Bryan Preston Adams, who died Tuesday morning at Tri-City Medical Center, said Sgt. Manny Castillo of the sheriff’s homicide division. Adams was held at the County Jail in Vista on a murder charge and one count of felony child abuse, he said.

Adams called the Vista Fire Department at 6:58 a.m. Tuesday, saying that she had found her son lying unconscious on the floor in his bedroom when she went to wake him for breakfast, Castillo said. Sheriff’s deputies arrived soon after to assist the firefighters, and, after CPR was performed, the child was taken to Tri-City where he was pronounced dead at 7:46 a.m., he said.

A coroner’s autopsy Wednesday revealed that the toddler had died of internal and external injuries caused by blunt force, Castillo said. Further investigation by sheriff’s homicide and child abuse divisions led to the mother’s arrest, he said.

Bryan’s father, James Adams, a petty officer first class in the Navy, was completing an assignment in Honolulu and came home Tuesday, the day of his son’s death, Castillo said. Bail for Cherie Adams has been set at $250,000, he said.