Jury at Parents’ Murder Trial Told of Injuries to Infant Girl

The doctor who treated Joselin Hernandez’s burned and battered body in 1994 told a jury Tuesday that he believed the infant’s injuries were intentionally inflicted.

Dr. Robert Moore was among the witnesses to testify at the murder trial of Joselin’s parents, Rogelio and Gabriela Hernandez, who are accused of abusing the child when she was a baby and beating her to death as a 2-year-old.

Moore, formerly a resident physician at the Ventura County Medical Center, delivered Joselin on May 30, 1994, according to court testimony.

Six weeks later, the child was returned to him for treatment after being hospitalized with nine fractured ribs, two broken ankles and burns to her hands, feet and mouth.

On Tuesday, the doctor, who now works at a clinic in Napa, told the jury that it was his medical opinion that the child’s ribs were intentionally broken by someone forcefully squeezing her torso.

“The amount of force it takes to generate rib fractures in children is very large,” he said. He based his opinion on bruising of the child’s back and internal injuries, including liver and lung damage.

Moore said the baby was unusually underweight when admitted to the hospital in July 1994. Joselin weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces at birth. But when she was admitted to the medical center, he said, records indicate she weighed only 9 pounds, 8 ounces.

“Typically, a child will double their weight” in that time, Moore said.

He said that while Joselin was hospitalized, Gabriela Hernandez, then 16, visited the baby but did not ask nor comment about the seriousness of her daughter’s injuries. She never asked how the broken bones and burns could have been caused, he said.

On cross-examination, defense attorney William C. Maxwell, who represents the mother, questioned whether Joselin’s ribs could have been broken by someone accidentally stepping on her chest.

The doctor paused for a long moment before answering.

“I suppose it’s possible someone could step on a child and I suppose it could be accidental,” Moore said. “Although I can’t fathom that as a parent.”

In addition to Moore, a social worker and an Oxnard homicide detective testified Tuesday about their roles in the 1994 case of suspected abuse.

Det. Doug Wiley said that Rogelio Hernandez told authorities his daughter was burned by touching a leaky 12-volt battery while sitting on his lap. But Wiley said based on his investigation, that explanation seemed unlikely.