Man in jail accused of injuring 2-month old (+MUG)

A 20-year-old man accused of injuring his 2-month-old child on Jan. 8 was in jail Wednesday. But it wasn’t his first time to be accused of domestic abuse involving a young child.

Ralph Langford Lira, 515 E. Monahans St., was arrested at 2:28 p.m. Tuesday and was charged with first-degree felony injury to a child, third-degree felony tampering with physical evidence and misdemeanor possession of marijuana, evading arrest and resisting arrest. He was being held in the Ector County Detention Center on bonds totaling $130,000.

The arrest warrant affidavit for the infant’s mother, 19-year-old Charlotte Luisa Harris, 517 E. Monahans St., names Lira as the father of 2-month-old.

The affidavit stated the 2-month old had a spiral femur fracture and other healing wounds indicative of non-accidental injury, and police identified both Harris and Lira as being responsible for the injuries.

Lira had previously been accused of domestic abuse in New Mexico, running away to Texas before turning himself in to Odessa authorities.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reported Lira admitted in March 2011 to choking his 26-year-old girlfriend while holding her and her infant son, then also 2 months old, hostage in September 2009.

Lira pleaded guilty to aggravated battery against a household member causing great bodily harm, false imprisonment and battery against a household member, the Sun-News reported.

Third Judicial District Court Judge Lisa Schultz suspended Lira’s 4 1/2-year sentence as well as $11,000 in fines in favor of sentencing him to serve four years probation in Odessa, the Sun-News reported. His only criminal history before that was a credit card abuse state jail felony from Texas.

Reports from the Doña Ana Sheriff’s Office stated Lira had become upset during a discussion about his girlfriend's job as a stripper and choked the woman almost to the point of unconsciousness, leaving her neck bruised, the Sun-News reported.

The infant was unharmed and the woman fled as a neighbor called the police, the Sun-News reported.

@OAcrime