Saturday, April 25, 2009

NJ man held in beating death of his girlfriend's son with CP

From The AP:

WOODBINE, N.J. -- A Wildwood man is being held without bail on charges that he beat his girlfriend's 2-year-old son to death.

State police have charged 31-year-old Damian Garcia Rodriguez with second-degree manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

Investigators say he was baby-sitting Caden Rivera, who had cerebral palsy, at his girlfriend's apartment in Woodbine. When the boy's mother, Jennifer Bowen, came home, she saw that her son was unconscious and turning blue.

Bowen and Garcia Rodriguez took him to Cape May Regional Medical Center, where he died Thursday from a blunt force trauma injury to the abdomen, an autopsy revealed.

Garcia Rodriguez was arrested April 23 and appeared in court April 24.