Police responding to Dell Children’s Medical Center on Oct. 6, 2016, found a two-month-old baby girl with more than two dozen broken bones throughout her body, including her pelvis and multiple ribs, according to an arrest warrant.
In addition, the baby, Jaylynn Rodriguez, had signs associated with “trauma to internal organs,” the affidavit states.
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According to the affidavit, Rodriguez admitted to police he had been “too aggressive” with the baby and he “felt frustrated.” Rodriguez told police he held the baby too tight and “heard her bones pop in her chest/back area.” Rodriguez also told police that he got frustrated that the baby would not stop crying and he pushed down on the baby’s pelvic area with his body weight and pushed her away.
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“I just needed to control my emotions right then and there. I was changing her, and when I told them that, I didn’t think that they would take it like I did it intentionally to break her bones. Yeah, I did push down on her, but I never intentionally tried to hurt her. I didn’t think I was going to do all that stuff, but that’s what they charged me with,” he said.
Rodriguez said he could tell the baby was losing weight, and he tried to force her to eat by pushing a bottle in her mouth, the affidavit states.
The baby’s mother told police she “noticed a crunching sound in her daughter’s ribs” about two weeks prior to an October 2016 interview with police. At that time, the mother said the baby was beginning to have trouble eating, according to the affidavit.
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When police spoke with doctors at the hospital on Oct. 6, they were told the victim had numerous bone injuries both acute and healing, bruising over her body and a laceration to her tongue. The fractures included 17 to the ribs, both wrists and the pelvis. Four more breaks were found later, police said.
Doctor’s found that the baby’s body weight had dropped below the first percentile, and she was diagnosed with failure to thrive.
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Rodriguez says he’s been meeting with a parenting coach, buying her new clothes and baby-proofing his home in hopes of gaining custody. “I actually got some cover guards and stuff for the table and for the walls so when she starts walking and bumps her head or whatnot, then she will be protected,” he said.
"The detectives can say whatever they want, they can think whatever they want, but I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing since day one,” said Rodriguez.
