Examiner Details Dead Tot’s Injuries

Two-year-old Joselin Hernandez was badly bruised and scarred in the days leading up to her alleged murder--with some injuries occurring just hours before her death--a coroner’s official testified Monday.

Assistant Medical Examiner Janice Frank was one of three witnesses called before Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren during a preliminary examination of Joselin’s parents, who are accused of beating the toddler to death.

Gabriela and Rogelio Hernandez, both 18, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and felony child abuse. Joselin died at a friend’s birthday party in June of blunt-force injuries to her stomach.

At the end of this week’s preliminary examination, Perren must decide whether enough evidence exists to justify a murder trial for the Oxnard parents.

Frank took the witness stand late Monday to recount for the judge various injuries she observed on Joselin’s body during a post-mortem examination.

Using a sketch of the child’s body and autopsy photos, Frank described more than a dozen bruises to Joselin’s face, neck, chest, back and arms.

She also discussed scars she noticed on Joselin’s hands, including one caused by a burn that appeared to have occurred several months before the child’s death, Frank said.

In particular, she said that the child had “a series of bruises” along her spine and on her upper back that a tissue study revealed had occurred just hours before her death.

Perren interrupted Frank after 30 minutes of testimony, in which the assistant coroner detailed only the exterior injuries to the child’s upper body. Frank is expected to continue her testimony this morning.

Earlier Monday, Gabriela Hernandez’s brother, Leonardo Nieto, reluctantly took the witness stand to testify about his observations of the child after she was taken away from her parents in 1994 and before her death this year.

During the period in which the baby lived with its grandmother, Nieto said, Joselin was healthy and acted “just like a normal kid.” She was sick once or twice but did not suffer any serious injuries while in the care of his mother, Amor Nieto, he said.

But after his mother died in March and Joselin was returned to her parents, Nieto said he noticed that the child was losing weight.

He also observed a burn on Joselin’s hand and recalled one time in the months before her death when his niece’s arm seemed to hurt so badly that she could not lift it above her head.

“You could see it in her face,” he said, explaining that the child was not old enough to talk. “You know when a kid is hurt.”

Nieto said at one point after his mother’s death, his family told Gabriela and Rogelio Hernandez that they wanted Joselin to live with them. But he said the couple refused.

“They wanted her,” he said.

At one point during his reticent and sometimes testy testimony, Nieto lashed out at prosecutors for making him answer difficult questions, and he blamed his niece’s death on social workers.

The county’s social services department returned Joselin to her parents despite the earlier abuse incident when the child was 6 weeks old.

“I don’t like to be here,” Nieto snapped. “The person who should be here is the social worker. It is their fault.”