A St. Paul man faces criminal charges after authorities say he beat his girlfriend’s toddler so badly that the child is expected to have permanent brain damage.
Oscar Stanley Amaya, 21, was charged via warrant with first- and third-degree assault as well as three counts of malicious punishment of a child for his alleged actions toward the 2-year-old last winter, according to the criminal complaint filed against him Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.
St. Paul police began investigating the case in February after Amaya’s girlfriend’s little girl was admitted to Children’s Hospital with bruises covering her body and severe swelling on the right side of her head, legal documents say.
The woman told officers she noticed the injury to her daughter’s head while the two were dining at Boca Chica on Feb. 27 along with Amaya.
Shortly before arriving at the restaurant, she left her child in the car with Amaya while she ran into a doctor’s appointment Bethesda Clinic, she reported.
Aside from a few bruises on her body that the woman said she assumed were suffered from playing, the girls’ mother told police her daughter was fine when she entered the clinic.
When they arrived at the restaurant, she noticed her daughter had swelling on the right side of her head resembling an “egg,” as well as a red mark on the left side of her head, the complaint said.
The woman went on to say that she noticed that her daughter sometimes appeared afraid of Amaya during the eight months she had dated him, legal documents say. While the two didn’t live together, she said Amaya often stayed at her place and that she left her daughter alone with him while she showered.
She added that Amaya has hit and choked her in the past but that she never notified police about the conduct.
Doctors at Children’s Hospital discovered bruises all over the child’s body, including her eyes, ribs, legs and back, as well as injuries to her tongue, nose and head.
She was ultimately diagnosed with a complex skull fracture that will “likely cause permanent impairment of the function of (her) brain,” the complaint said.
When questioned by investigators, Amaya denied harming the child and said he gave her chocolate and something to drink while her mother was in the clinic.
Both he and his girlfriend noticed the bruising to her head when they arrived at the restaurant and panicked, he said.
He also said he never harmed his girlfriend.
Amaya has no felonies on his criminal record and could not be immediately reached for comment.
No attorney was listed for him in court records.