An infant girl died in Albuquerque after suffering sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her mother's boyfriend, New Mexico cops said.
Angelique Montano's 4-month-old baby, Izabellah, died Sunday, after two weeks on life support, according to KOB-TV.
Montano's boyfriend, Elijah Fernandez, 19, is accused of causing serious brain and sexual trauma to the child while high on synthetic marijuana, commonly referred to as spice.
Doctors had allegedly referred the child to the state's Children Youth and Families Department three times before the deadly incident because of past injuries, according to KOB-TV.
A reporter from the station previously spoke with Montano, who said the deadly abuse happened when she left Izabellah with her boyfriend while she went to do laundry.
"If I just waited to do laundry, stupid laundry, until the next morning none of this would of never [sic] happened, my daughter would've been OK," Montano said. "I don't know what triggered him to do something like this to an innocent baby. She doesn't know what's going on and she's helpless.”
Police responded to Montano's house on Feb. 7, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
The paper cites police, none quoted directly, who claim that Fernandez admitted to hitting the child because he was "stressed," as the paper described it, about his lack of employment and the child's crying.
Fernandez faces charges of child abuse resulting in death and aggravated criminal sexual penetration.
In an investigation last year, the Albuquerque Journal found that New Mexico ranks second in the nation for per capita deaths caused by child abuse. LINK
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