The mother of a toddler who died of burns had fabricated a story with her boyfriend to explain the injuries and waited hours before taking him to the hospital, according to police.
Isela Reyes-Talamentes, 23, and her boyfriend, John Vigil, 21, are in custody and suspected of child abuse in the death of Elijah Archuleta, 2.
Information in a probable-cause affidavit indicates the boy may have been dead when the couple arrived at St. Anthony Central Hospital late Friday.
Medical personnel who saw Elijah said he was burned over 75 percent of his body and had a black eye, according to the report.
The couple were in a triage room with the child wrapped to the head in blankets when Gregory Busby, a triage nurse, came in.
“As R.N. Busby approached, he asked how the child was burned. The male stated the child was burned yesterday, a day ago, while standing in a bathtub; he turned on the hot water on himself,” according to the report.
They brought the child to the hospital because he was choking not because of the burns, Vigil said.
Busby noticed the child wasn’t breathing and, while running with him, administered two “rescue breaths, and then realized the child was ice cold and then found no pulse,” according to the affidavit.
Medical personnel tried to revive the boy for up to 30 minutes before pronouncing him dead.
Denver police went to 925 Osage St., where the couple lived with the boy and his sister, Serenity, 4, and found a baby blanket on a bedroom floor stained with “some unknown red substance.”
There were three adults and six children in the tiny home; police took them to headquarters on Cherokee Street for questioning.
The names of children, including Elijah’s, are blacked out in the report. But it indicates that Serenity told police Vigil burned the child.
“The 4 year-old related that John John (Vigil) had burned (Elijah. She) also talked about (Elijah) being on the floor and choking (and) related that John John was mad at Mommy because Mommy was crying because (Elijah) had died.”
Reyes-Talamentes first told police that Vigil gave the boy a bath after they came home from a “court thing” scheduled for Vigil. He is currently serving a three-year deferred sentence for drug dealing.
She was in another room with the music turned up when Vigil brought the child in and told her Elijah had burned himself.
He assured her that Elijah would be OK and applied a burn lotion to the injuries, Reyes-Talamentes told police.
On the way to the hospital, the boy stopped breathing, and Vigil administered CPR, she said.
She then changed her story, saying that when Vigil picked her up from work at about 1:25 p.m., the boy was in his carseat, dressed and wrapped in a blanket.
Vigil told her that her son had turned on the hot water while reaching for a sponge toy. Vigil was outside at the time, he told her.
She noticed the child’s hands and face were red and “she could sense that something was wrong.”
The couple went to a bank and withdrew $600, then bought gas and drove to court. When Vigil’s court date was finished, they drove to Walgreens, where Vigil paid $8 for burn lotion.
Then they went to Chipotle and from there to Wal-Mart, where they bought chips, sliced turkey and Lunchables.
At about 7:15 p.m. they returned home. “During the ride and stop at the house,” the boy was calm, his mother told police.
“John went to the Taqueria Mi Pueblo to hang out with friends. While at home, John took off (the boy’s) clothes, and Ms. Reyes saw the extent of his injuries.”
Later, Reyes-Talamentes noticed that Elijah didn’t “look right,” the report said.
“She told John that they needed to go to the hospital. But John refused, saying that he could treat the baby himself.”
Reyes-Talamentes then dropped off Serenity at her mother’s house and drove to St. Anthony’s. John held Elijah in the back seat.
“Ms. Reyes confessed during the interview that she knew of the extent of (the) injuries and did not immediately seek medical attention. Ms. Reyes said that she paid John Vigil money to take care” of the child.
She said the two planned to lie to medical personnel and police and tell them Elijah was burned at about 7:45 p.m., just after John bathed him.
Complications caused by scalding led to the boy’s death, according to the Denver coroner’s office.
“An autopsy was completed by our office, and the cause of death was due to complications of thermal injuries (scalding),” according to a release from Michelle Weiss-Samaras of the coroner’s office.
Today, representatives of the Archdiocese of Denver picked up Elijah’s body for burial. Services for the child have yet to be arranged, said Desiree Moreno, a friend of James Archuleta, Elijah’s father.
