LIVERMORE — A local woman has been accused of assaulting an 8-month-old baby with enough force to kill, and police say the young girl likely would have perished if not for medical intervention.
Prosecutors in Alameda County filed charges of assault, child abuse, and causing corporal injury to a child against 27-year-old Adriana Trejo-Guillen, a Livermore resident who was serving as a babysitter for the 8-month-old girl. The investigation was complex, but came down to two simple conclusions by doctors and police: the girl’s injuries could only have been caused by physical abuse, and Trejo-Guillen was the only adult around when it happened, according to court records.
Trejo-Guillen has been released from jail after posting $10,000 bail. She has pleaded not guilty and won’t be due in court again until Jan. 28, according to public records.
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The investigation started on Oct. 10, when the girl’s mother reported to doctors that her daughter was acting abnormally, including obvious lethargy and some vomiting. The girl was hospitalized and found to have a skull fracture, hemorrhages in her brain, and other injuries consistent with forcible slamming onto a hard surface, according to authorities.
The girl’s mother told police that she had entrusted the girl to Trejo-Guillen — the girlfriend of a relative of the mother — when she had to return to work. Trejo-Guillen told the girl’s mother that she cared for the baby as if she were her own child, and denied anything out of the ordinary had occurred, authorities said.
When police interviewed Trejo-Guillen, she told them that the baby had woken her up at around 3 a.m. on Oct. 10 and appeared to be suffering from an illness, so Trejo-Guillen attempted to provide care. When police confronted her with the the baby’s injuries, they say she “became defensive” and terminated the interview. Trejo-Guillen was charged based on the timeline of the injuries and the determination that no other adults were around when the baby was hurt, according to court records.