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WEST VALLEY CITY -- A West Valley man is in jail, accused of abusing his 13-month-old son and leaving him alone in a home, possibly for hours. The baby is still in the hospital.
According to police, the father was watching the baby and his 2-year-old daughter while relatives were away on vacation. When the man's mother and brother returned on Friday, they found the 13-month-old in the basement on the floor, wearing only diapers.
Police said the baby was lethargic and unresponsive. He also had bruises, including a large bruise on the back of his head, and some cuts.
The baby's grandmother took him to the hospital in critical condition. Officers questioned the father, 22-year-old Humberto Alvarez, and then arrested him for child abuse and neglect.
"Mr. Alvarez's response is he had run to the store. It could have been minutes; it could have been hours," said West Valley police Capt. Tom McLachlan.
Jail documents shed more light on what may have happened to the boy. They said Alvarez admitted to throwing a laundry basket at the boy, causing the head injury. He also allegedly admitted to repeatedly hitting the baby with a shoe.
Police won't talk about a motive, but said there were also signs of past abuse. The baby had cuts in his mouth, and bruises all over his body.
Doctors also found indications that both his tibia and fibula bones in one leg had been broken.
"One bone was in a more advanced state of healing than the other, which indicates the breaks occurred at different times previous to this," McLachlan said.
KSL News went to Alvarez's home Monday. His brother told us it's possible the boy's 2-year-old sister caused some of his injuries because she's been known to hit him. He said the family does not know how the boy broke his leg.
As for the boy's mother, McLachlan said she has been deported, but he wasn't sure how long ago that happened.
The 2-year-old girl is now in her grandmother's custody. Police said there are no indications that she was abused.
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Story compiled with contributions from Sandra Yi and Marc Giauque.
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