Stepmom Charged in Boy's Fatal Injuries

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police have charged an Albuquerque woman in the death of her 3-year-old stepson who died from being hit hard enough to tear his small intestine.

The boy died Aug, 27, and police arrested Chiara Anton-Williams after the Office of the Medical Investigator ruled the boy's death a homicide cause by internal injuries. Anton-Williams, 27, was charged with child abuse resulting in death.

“That child suffered blunt trauma,” Albuquerque Police Department Officer Nadine Hamby said.

Police reported the case began when an Albuquerque Public Schools officer spotted a frantic Anton-Williams in the parking lot of the S.Y. Jackson Elementary School just after classes dismissed. She was with her stepson, whom the officer said looked gray and was having trouble breathing.

He called for an ambulance, and the boy died at University of New Mexico hospital later that day.

An autopsy showed the child died from blunt-force trauma to the abdomen that resulted in several tears in his small intestine. Investigators said the fatal injuries happened within that hour.

Police began questioning Anton-Williams who was with the child an hour before he died. The stepmother told police during that time she had been rough with the child after he defecated on the floor in their home as they were leaving to pick up her biological children from school.

The stepmom told police she grabbed him put him in the shower but said that was all she did. Police said her story doesn't match up with the boy's injuries.

“Somebody had to actually have seriously put some trauma to this kid, and it didn't happen by you just grabbing his arm and taking him somewhere,” Hamby said.

The state Children, Youth and Families Department reported there is no record of prior abuse allegations against Anton-Williams. However directors at the daycare the boy went to told police the child showed up once with a black eye and another time with a swollen eye.

Anton-Williams told the daycare directors the boy fell the first time, and the second time she said he was sick, according to a criminal complaint.

The daycare’s director declined to comment. The boy's father is not being investigated.

The child had two step-siblings. It is not known who is caring for them.

Anton-Williams was being held on a $150,000 cash or surety bond. She posted that bond just after noon on Thursday.