Rudy A. Garcia and Angelica M. Najera are both being held in the Ada County Jail on a $200,000 bond after investigators determined their 1-year-old son had been severely beaten several times since last fall.
Both Garcia and Najera are charged with felony injury to child — with the enhanced count of infliction of great bodily injury — in connection with the case.
Garcia is also charged with felony counts of grand theft and burglary in connection with the theft of power tools from a construction site in Meridian earlier this year.
It was during that investigation when Ada County Sheriff’s detectives discovered the injuries to the boy, which included severe bruising all over his body and led paramedics to take him to a local hospital for immediate treatment.
Detectives declared the boy and the couple’s two other preschool age kids to be in imminent danger on Feb. 4 and placed the children into the custody of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Deputies began their investigation Feb. 1 after getting a report someone stole over $1,400 worth of power tools from four different contractors working on a construction site in the 7300 block of Linder Road.
By Feb. 4 deputies had identified Garcia, who worked on the site, and Najera to be the suspects in the theft of the tools. They found evidence Garcia took the tools from the site and Najera attempted to sell them.
Deputies located Najera the morning of Feb. 4 at the construction site and talked to her about the theft of tools. That’s when they found out about the physical abuse of the boy.
Detectives found Garcia later that day at a hotel in the 1000 block of S. Progress Avenue with the couple’s three kids. Bags were packed and it appeared the couple was ready to leave and go back to the Twin Falls area, despite having one more day in the hotel paid for.
Detectives interviewed Garcia and arrested him a short time later on the grand theft and burglary charges. The bond for those two charges is $250,000.
Detectives continued to work on the child abuse case. A grand jury indicted both Garcia and Najera on felony injury to child charges Feb. 14.
Garcia was already in jail on the other charges when he was served with a new arrest warrant. Deputies arrested Najera on Feb. 17 and booked her into the jail. Both have an arraignment hearing set for March 7.
The crime of felony injury to child, with the enhanced charge of infliction of great bodily injury, is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.