Man Is Arrested in Beating of 2-Year-Old Boy

A Tustin man who confessed to authorities that he regularly beat his live-in girlfriend’s 2-year-old son was arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse Thursday, authorities said.

Lawrence Joseph Lujan, 30, was arrested at Orange County Sheriff’s Department headquarters in Santa Ana after several hours of interrogation, Lt. Robert Rivas said. Lujan said he had a problem dealing with children and regularly beat the boy over the past two months, Rivas said. The boy was listed in critical condition Thursday night at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, sheriff’s officials said. Lujan told deputies that he threw the boy into a wall at home Thursday morning and then tossed him into a bathroom, bloodying the boy’s head, Rivas said.

Lujan then called the Orange County Fire Department at about 7:25 a.m., saying the boy had had a seizure in the bathroom.

When paramedics arrived at the home at 12931 Malena Drive in Tustin, the boy appeared comatose, was bleeding and had bruises on several parts of his body, sheriff’s officials said.

Fire Department officials, after taking the boy to the hospital, called the Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies met Lujan and the boy’s mother, Cynthia Denise Jones, 25, at the hospital before taking both of them to their downtown office for interrogation.

Deputies were still interviewing Jones late Thursday.

Lujan was being held in Orange County Central Jail in Santa Ana on $10,000 bail.