Suspect in infant death bit, bruised child in 2013

UPDATE 9/13: Suspect in infant death charged with murder

The man accused of fatally striking a baby in a Fort Collins apartment Thursday is serving parole for a similar attack in 2013.

Police say Juan Canales-Hernandez, 24, confessed Thursday to fatally striking his girlfriend's infant daughter with a chair while he was watching her. Eleven-month-old RaeLynn Martinez died Friday at a Denver-area hospital.

Canales-Hernandez is being held without bond in the Larimer County jail on allegations of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and parole revocation. Formal criminal charges are pending, and his first appearance in court is scheduled for Friday.

Details of his Thursday arrest mirror those of a 2013 case for which he pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, a Class 4 felony. That attack left a child also unrelated to Canales-Hernandez suffering a broken arm, a torn pancreas, hundreds of bruises and several bite marks.

According to the Nov. 13, 2013, arrest affidavit, Canales-Hernandez was watching a previous girlfriend's young son and other neighborhood children in Fort Collins on Oct. 11, 2013, in return for a place to stay because he was homeless.

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Canales-Hernandez told investigators that the child threw water on him, so he retaliated by sucking on the child's face and leaving bite marks. He said he then wrestled with the child and spun the child around before becoming dizzy, sending both him and the child crashing into the corner of a glass television stand. The move pinned the child between Canales-Hernandez and the stand.

At that point, Canales-Hernandez said he pinned down the child's arms, poked him with his index fingers and told the child to "shake it off." The boy did not laugh, so Canales-Hernandez poked him harder.

He told the boy's mother about the child's facial injuries when she arrived home from work and she saw the bruises on the child's body. The child's mother told police she thought he would be OK. But when the boy awoke later that night screaming, she called her mother in Maryland.

The grandmother traveled to Fort Collins, picked the boy up and had him transported and admitted to Carroll Hospital in Westminster, Maryland. He was transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore with life-threatening injuries and underwent surgery to remove a portion of his pancreas.

The child's left forearm was fractured, his pancreas was torn in half, his liver was bruised and he had more than 100 other bruises on his body, court records show. He had bite marks on his inner thigh and face.

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Canales-Hernandez accepted a plea deal in the case and pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. He was sentenced to serve four years in the Colorado Department of Corrections, but had since been paroled.

He allegedly confessed Thursday to attacking the 11-month-old daughter of his girlfriend, Alexa Coria, while Coria was picking up another child from school.

Police say Canales-Hernandez told investigators he became "frustrated" after the girl started crying and hit her with a chair, knocking her from a high chair to the floor. The child suffered life-threatening injuries for which she was airlifted to Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. Police say she died there at 5:05 p.m. Friday.

Canales-Hernandez and Coria allegedly discussed a plan to tell investigators the injury was an accident, according to his arrest affidavit.

Coria told investigators the girl must have fallen while climbing on the high chair while she was in the bathroom, court records show. She said the girl went "dangly" in her arms, and she spent 30 to 45 minutes trying to keep her awake by placing her body in the water of the upstairs shower before ultimately having Canales-Hernandez drive them to the hospital.

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Coria defended herself to a crowd of more than 75 people at a Sunday candlelight vigil and said she hadn't been told the "real truth."

"I love each and every one of you for coming out here and showing me that you guys love me and my babies," Coria said.

Police said investigators are still gathering evidence to determine whether Coria will face charges. The Larimer County Coroner's Office has not yet released an official cause or manner of death for the child.