The mother of a toddler who died of burns fabricated a story with her boyfriend to explain the injuries and waited hours before taking the child to the hospital, according to police.
Isela Reyes-Talamentes, 23, and the boyfriend, John Vigil, 21, are in custody and face murder charges 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 affidavit indicates the couple were in a triage room with the child wrapped to the head in blankets when Gregory Busby, a triage nurse, came in. “The male stated the child was burned yesterday, a day ago, while standing in a bath tub he turned on the hot water on himself,” according to the report.
Busby saw that the child wasn’t breathing and administered two “rescue breaths and then realized the child was ice cold and then found no pulse.”
The coroner said Monday that Elijah died from complications caused by scalding.
The hospital notified Denver police, who went to 925 Osage St., where the couple lived with the boy and his sister, Serenity, 4, and several others. They found a baby blanket on a bedroom floor stained with “some unknown red substance.”
The report indicates that Serenity told police that Vigil burned Elijah.
“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 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.
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 car seat, 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.”
But the couple ran errands and didn’t get home until about 7:15 p.m., she told police in this version.
Reyes-Talamentes told police she and Vigil planned to lie to medical personnel and authorities and tell them Elijah was burned about 7:45 p.m., just after Vigil bathed him.
At home, 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.
On Monday, representatives of the Archdiocese of Denver picked up Elijah’s body for burial, said Desiree Moreno, a friend of Elijah’s father, James Archuleta. Service information is pending.
