Parents of Dead Boy Get Jail Term for Child Abuse

Two Oxnard farm workers whose son died with a shattered leg, a bleeding brain and a burn-scarred chest were sentenced Friday to one year in jail and five years probation by a judge who ruled they did not intentionally hurt the boy.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch sentenced Virginia Cervantes, 29, and Jose Ambriz, 59, to serve time in the county jail after pleading guilty to two counts each of child abuse.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrice Koenig and a probation officer recommended the couple serve time in state prison.

However, Storch said the couple had no prior criminal records, and he explained the lighter sentence this way: “I see no indication these are intentionally inflicted injuries. . . . Without a murder charge, I cannot impose a state prison sentence.”

He said he viewed the boy’s death as “a neglect case, as distinguished from a willful misconduct case” because psychologists who interviewed the couple ruled they did not intend to hurt him.

Storch said of prosecutors, “They’ve got a very difficult case here with many unanswered questions.”

Koenig said later that there was not enough evidence to charge Cervantes or Ambriz with murder in the death of 2-year-old Rene Ambriz, or even to prove who had injured him.

County child welfare officials recommended the couple be allowed to keep their four remaining children, Koenig said.

But the probation reports outline a grisly pattern of neglect that eventually caused Rene to die broken, undernourished and in pain on June 11, 1991.

The report tells of a large burn pattern probably caused by someone pouring or spilling a scalding hot liquid on the boy’s chest.

His mother said he was scalded in the shower when she was out of the room, and that she treated it with ointment meant for sore muscles. However, district attorney’s investigators found that the shower’s hottest temperature was still too cool to have caused the injury.

At the time of death, Rene’s leg was still broken above and below the knee with a 2- to 5-week-old pair of fractures similar to those found in battered children, an orthopedist told the probation officer.

Cervantes and Ambriz told authorities that Rene’s leg broke accidentally on May 19 against a pole that he hit as he rode down a playground slide on his older brother’s lap.

A black eye was probably caused when Rene banged his head on a bedpost, Cervantes told investigators.

But the couple offered no explanation for a myriad of bruises on his body from the neck down, nor for old scars on his face, the probation report said.

The couple took the child to a faith healer three times, but the man refused to treat the broken leg bones, saying the boy should go to a hospital.

Cervantes and Ambriz told authorities they thought Rene’s injuries would heal and they had no money for doctors. They had Medi-Cal stickers, but did not use them because people had told them Medi-Cal would not cover Rene’s injuries, the probation report said.

However, Cervantes did obtain prenatal care for herself and immunization shots for Rene’s older siblings, the report said.

Cervantes told authorities she disciplined her children by spanking their buttocks with her hand, but she denied pouring hot liquid onto Rene.

“I feel bad about Rene’s death because they say it was my fault,” she told a court interpreter. “Do you think I wanted him to die?”

Ambriz told the interpreter he did not inflict any of Rene’s injuries, and said he felt “very ugly, bad” about Rene’s death. He added, “Children are given by God, you do the best you can with them, and some of them survive and reach adulthood.”

Rene died from bleeding on the brain caused by a head injury that his mother said he suffered in a fall. Jose Ambriz’s nephew, Benjamin Navarro Ambriz, 38, has said that Rene suffered the head injury when he fell from his bed onto the concrete floor.

Doctors interviewed in the probation report said the boy weighed 18 pounds at death--about the same as a child half his age.

The probation officer concluded, “Considering his horrific injuries, Rene’s brief existence was surely fraught with pain and agony beyond comprehension. . . . This abuse was surely inflicted by both or either parents.”

Storch said that he would allow Ambriz to remain free while Cervantes completes her one-year sentence--285 days of which she has served awaiting trial.

Then, Ambriz must turn himself in to serve his sentence, already having credit for 55 days he spent in jail before posting $500 cash bail following the couple’s arrest in March.

The arrangement would let at least one parent take care of their remaining children. Cervantes’ two sons are in foster care, while Ambriz is out on $500 bail, caring at home for the couple’s daughters--a 1-year-old toddler and a 3-week-old infant born to Cervantes in jail, Koenig said.

Ambriz, a Mexican national who has permission to work in the United States, has 13 other children in his native Mexico, she said.

Upon release, Cervantes must answer to a hold placed on her by the U.S. Immigration Service for allegedly being an illegal alien, Koenig said.