She blamed the infant’s death on a toddler. The real story is far more horrifying.
A Florida woman could spend the rest of her life in prison after being charged with killing a 4-month-old girl who was in her care.
Samantha Angeles-De La Rosa, 28, was arrested Wednesday on second degree murder and child abuse charges, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies and firefighters responded to Angeles-De La Rosa’s home in Bartow on Tuesday morning where they found an infant unresponsive. The infant was taken to Winter Haven Hospital where the staff pronounced her dead about an hour later, the sheriff’s office said in a Thursday news release.
The infant had several bruises on her body, head and face, according to the sheriff’s office.
Angeles-De La Rosa, who was the only adult home at the time, initially blamed the incident on a 21-month-old. She repeatedly told detectives that the toddler was rough with the infant, later explaining the fatal injuries occurred when the child pulled the baby to the floor from the changing table, deputies say.
The autopsy on the infant, however, conflicted with Angeles-De La Rosa’s claims. It showed the baby had suffered a fractured skull, a brain bleed and contusions on the outside of the brain, injuries that medical examiner Dr. Stephen Nelson noted could only come from blunt-force trauma. Nelson also noticed three healing fractures — two on the ribs and another on the left forearm — that were the result of significant force, according to the sheriff’s office.
In her post-autopsy interview, Angeles-De La Rosa said the fractures stemmed from the baby’s arm getting caught in the seatbelt when she accidentally yanked her out of the car seat. The 28-year-old still linked the infant’s death to the toddler but let it slip that she had once tightly squeezed the baby’s abdomen out of anger, deputies say.
Only later in the interview did Angeles-De La Rosa finally confess to killing the infant, according to the sheriff’s office. Overwhelmed by the infant’s incessant crying, she too started to weep before suddenly losing it for “a split second.”
“Angeles-De La Rosa grabbed the victim by the shoulders and struck the victim’s head two times ‘hard’ against the wood frame of the changing table,” the deputy wrote.
The relationship between Angeles-De La Rosa and the infant is unclear.
Jail records show Angeles-De La Rosa is being held at the Polk County Jail without bond.
“If anyone caring for a child is feeling overwhelmed or out of control, please seek help from family, friends, clergy, or a social services agency,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in the release. “... If anyone has direct knowledge of anyone hurting a child, report it to your local law enforcement agency or the Department of Children and Families Abuse Hotline at 1-800-962-2873.”
A review of Angeles-De La Rosa’s criminal history yielded two arrests in Polk County but only one conviction for driving without a valid license in 2016. The other charge, a 2019 domestic battery incident in which the arrest reports states she hit and scratched her then 17-year-old sister, was eventually dismissed.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 6:26 PM.
