A 23-year-old Odessa woman was arrested Friday after a Gonzalez Elementary School nurse and administrators told police they found a 5-year-old covered in bruises.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, the child told the school nurse he was in pain and without being asked, he pointed to bruises on his butt, elbow and an area on his head near his ear.
Officers spotted injuries on the boy’s arm, back and head and noted in their report those are not areas for “reasonable discipline”. They also noted a linear mark on the boy’s butt.
During a forensic interview at Harmony Home, the boy said Yesika Del Carmen Ramos Munoz used a rectangular board to spank him when his father wasn’t home the night prior, the report stated.
The boy’s father told officers he was at work Thursday night and didn’t get home until the early morning hours, the report stated. He further said he’d received a text from Munoz the night before telling him not to accuse her of hitting his son because he’d been bit by an insect or “had a reaction to his shirt.”
The child’s father, who drove the boy to school Friday morning, said he didn’t suspect anything after receiving Munoz’s text, according to the report.
Munoz was arrested on suspicion of injury to a child, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison. She was released Saturday after posting a $15,000 surety bond.
