OGDEN — A 37-year-old Ogden man has been ordered to stand trial on charges of attempted aggravated murder and child abuse.
Apolinar Flores was arrested Feb. 6 after doctors said a 9-month-old boy suffered multiple skull fractures, both new and healing.
Flores was arrested the same evening he and the boy’s mother took the child to McKay-Dee Hospital. He was formally charged the next morning.
After a preliminary hearing May 15, 2nd District Judge W. Brent West found evidence sufficient to advance the case on the second-degree felony child abuse charge, but took the aggravated attempted murder charge under advisement.
On May 23, the judge found the evidence sufficient to also advance Flores to trial on the second charge, a first-degree felony.
Circumstances by statute that upgrade attempted murder to aggravated status include evidence of ongoing intentional serious injury sufficient to create a risk of death.
A July 18 pretrial conference has been set. Flores is being held in Weber County Jail without bail.a
The infant was flown from McKay-Dee by helicopter Feb. 6 to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City with traumatic head injuries, police said.
Detectives interviewed Flores, arrested him and booked him into Weber County Jail. The injured child’s mother was Flores’ girlfriend at the time, police said.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Flores admitted to being the only caretaker with the child when the multiple injuries occurred.
“Flores stated that the victim fell off a bed,” the affidavit reads. “The doctors stated that this is not possible to produce the injuries.”
The injuries were described as multiple skull fractures, a subdural hematoma and bleeding within the brain. They included “old injuries” that were healing and visible on the child’s brain, the document said.
A neurosurgeon described the injuries as resulting from “a high energy impact.”
In the affidavit, Flores also told police that he is in the country illegally and that “if he was guilty he would flee to Mexico.”
Comments