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PROVO — A Provo man was arrested Thursday after police say he inflicted serious injuries to a 1-year-old girl.
Javier Alverdi-Ramirez, 20, was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of two counts of child abuse.
The investigation began Thursday when a young girl was taken to the emergency room at Utah Valley Hospital. A doctor “suspected that the 1-year-old child was being physically abused,” according to a police affidavit.
The girl had a head injury “that caused the child to go unconscious. When the victim woke up she had an altered level of consciousness, and vomited multiple times. The victim was found to have bruises all over her body,” the affidavit states. “The bruises were recent to several weeks old and appeared to be caused by a human hand. On most of the bruises you could see the finger marks from an adult hand.”
In addition, the girl had two broken ribs, the affidavits states. Doctors sent the girl to Primary Children’s Hospital for further treatment.
The girl’s mother said she was in the shower Thursday when her boyfriend, Alverdi-Ramirez, told her something was wrong with her daughter. The mother “found the victim unconscious on the floor of her bedroom,” police wrote
Alverdi-Ramirez claimed the child fell from the bed, the affidavit states. But the doctor who contacted authorities “said the head injury was consistent with abuse and not from a fall.”
The mother also told police it was possible that Alverdi-Ramirez might be abusing her daughter. She said in prior incidents he has become upset with the girl when she cries or won’t go to sleep, and then goes into her room, according to the affidavit. She would then hear loud noises coming from the bedroom, but Alverdi-Ramirez told her he was hitting a wall or the bed to scare the child.
When interviewed by police, “Javier admitted that he does get angry with the victim but said when he gets angry he does other stuff like cleaning or cooking,” the report states.
