Parents’ Bail Set at $250,000 Each in Death of 2-Year-Old

Bail was set at $250,000 each for an Oxnard couple accused of beating their 2-year-old daughter to death in June, as a judge on Friday gave their court-appointed attorneys three additional weeks to prepare a defense.

Rojelio and Gabriela Hernandez were arrested Thursday by Oxnard police detectives in the beating death of their daughter, Joselyn, who collapsed and died June 22 while attending a friend’s birthday party.

An autopsy later revealed that the girl had died from severe abdominal trauma because of battered child’s syndrome. Since the death of their daughter, the couple have maintained their innocence.

Along with the murder charge, the couple were charged with child abuse alleging a history of battery against their daughter that dates back to when Joselyn was 6 weeks old.

Rojelio Hernandez, 19, and Gabriela Hernandez, 18, are being held at the Ventura County Jail pending their Dec. 16 arraignment.

Since the death of Joselyn, the couple’s year-old son has been in the care of foster parents, officials said.

Prosecutor Dee Corona would not comment on the case, but Oxnard Homicide Investigator Doug Wiley said since Joselyn’s death the department has been working with the district attorney’s office to put together the case against the parents.

Joselyn had been removed from the parents’ custody in 1994 after she was burned by battery acid and had her ribs and legs broken, Wiley said. Her grandmother took care of Joselyn, but when the grandmother died earlier this year Joselyn was returned to her parents.

“I was very surprised she was ever returned to them,” Wiley said. “I had lost contact with her and thought she was safe.”

At the time of the 1994 incident, the parents said their inexperience and youth were to blame for their daughter’s injuries. For a short time Joselyn was in a foster home before custody was given to her grandmother.

Meanwhile, the parents attended parenting classes--ordered by the Ventura County Public Social Services Agency--and had a social worker regularly visit their small home behind a Mexican grocery store in Oxnard.

Social workers recommended that Joselyn be placed with her parents after the child’s grandmother died in January. An internal social services agency review of the case, released in September, concluded that there was no way of knowing that Joselyn would be dead only a few months later.

At the height of the investigation into Joselyn’s death, Wiley said, more than 10 Oxnard police officers were working on the case, interviewing the couple’s extended family and gathering evidence of past possible child abuse, including medical records and documents from the social service agency.

The couple refused to talk to police and hired an attorney. The police also did not get much cooperation from other family members, Wiley said.

“This is not a case with a smoking gun,” he said. “What we had was a lot of circumstantial evidence and bits and pieces that the D.A.’s office was able to put together.”

The district attorney’s office hired an expert on child abuse and for the past two months has been using the medical reports, social service records and the evidence gathered by the police to make its case, Wiley said.

“Really, the D.A.’s office is equally responsible for making this case,” he said.

Wiley said the “voluminous” record of abuse over Joselyn’s short life was astounding.

“She had a terrible life,” he said.