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Abdominal Injuries Blamed in Girl’s Death

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

A 2-year-old Oxnard girl who died Saturday night while attending a friend’s birthday party was the victim of abdominal injuries “due to battered child syndrome,” according to Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate.

Wingate said Tuesday that an autopsy performed on Jocelyn Hernandez showed she had sustained “blunt force trauma and abdominal injuries.”

In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Jocelyn’s father, 18-year-old Rogelio Hernandez of Oxnard, said he was surprised at the coroner’s ruling.

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“We don’t exactly know how she died,” Hernandez said.

Asked if either he or Jocelyn’s mother, 18-year-old Gabriela Nieto of Oxnard, had struck the child before she fell ill Saturday night or at any time in the past, Hernandez replied: “No.”

Oxnard police had ruled the girl’s death suspicious.

When informed of the coroner’s ruling about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Senior Police Officer Tom Chronister said: “We’ve only just started the investigation, but we’ve already done some interviewing.”

Because the cause of death was not immediately known, the department treated it “like a homicide,” Chronister said.

The investigation is continuing, and Chronister said it is too early to make any determination about who caused the death.

No arrests have been made.

Jocelyn died about 10 p.m. Saturday in the arms of her mother while the family attended a birthday party at the home of Nelson Perez on Saratoga Street in Oxnard.

Perez said Jocelyn and her parents had been at the party about 30 minutes when the girl began vomiting.

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After dialing 911, Nieto began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her daughter but was unsuccessful.

Firefighters arrived and Jocelyn was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Nieto’s Produce, an Oxnard Boulevard market owned by Nieto and Hernandez and specializing in Mexican foods, was open Tuesday afternoon, although its owners were not in.

Nieto’s 13-year-old brother, Miguel, was helping a customer load tomatoes into a van.

“I’ve never seen anyone hit [Jocelyn],” he said.

Others at the store who said they know Jocelyn’s parents said neither Hernandez nor Gabriela Nieto had been abusive with the child.

Correspondent Scott Hadly contributed to this story.

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