Reprint from the Progress Times - April 4, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

La Joya woman arraigned in bed

 

A La Joya woman, weighing at least 800 pounds, remains free after being arraigned last week from her bedroom on capital murder charges relating to the death of her two-year-old nephew.

According to investigators, Mayra Lizbeth Rosales initially told police that she had slipped and hit Eliseo Gonzalez Jr. in the head causing him to fall from a chair. However, because autopsy results showed skull fractures and signs that the boy died of two blows to the head, the 27 year-old bedridden woman was fingerprinted at her home.

The boy’s mother, Jamie Lee Rosales, has also been charged with injury to a child, accused of negligence and is being held on a $50,000 bond.

Rosales allegedly left her three children in the care of Mayra Lizbeth March 18 while she took another child for a dentist appointment. However, Rosales had reportedly signed an agreement with Child Protective Services (CPS) pledging not to leave her children in her sister’s sole care due to her condition.

Currently Rosales’ other children reside with a relative after being moved by CPS.

If convicted the children’s mother could face 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. The capital murder charge levied against Mayra Lizbeth Rosales carries with it a possible death sentence.