Asshat - No laughing matter

I know sometimes when I take to doing an Asshat blog I will start by trying to be funny or witty or at least do a couple sentence diatribe on what is about to follow.  I can't do that this time, this isn't funny, it isn't cute and there is no suitable joke or rant I can make here.

Reno mother pleads guilty to fatally shaking, beating and burning infant son

A 30-year-old housekeeper admitted Thursday that she fatally abused her infant son through shaking, beating and severe burning, by inflicting injuries that dated back to when he was born 57 days earlier, authorities said.

Josela Posada pleaded guilty before Washoe District Judge Steven Elliott to the first-degree murder of her 8-week-old baby, Kristopher, who died Feb. 13, 2010. She was scheduled for a May 26 sentencing where she faces a term of life in prison. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have also placed a hold on the El Salvadorian woman whom they said is in the country illegally.

During a preliminary hearing, baby Kristopher’s father, Orlando Vasquez, testified that Posada referred to the infant as a gay slur and had never wanted the child. Vasquez and Reno police detectives testified Posada admitted to them she struck the baby when she was angered by his crying.

Posada has an older daughter who was 15-months old when Kristopher died after Posada said she had put him to sleep in his crib. Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler said the girl was healthy and well cared for, and that she is in the custody of relatives.

Vasquez testified he was trying to get custody of his son and that Posada wouldn’t let him see the boy.

At the time of the baby’s death, Posada had been working as a housekeeper for an apartment complex on Kuenzli Street, where she also lived with her children.

Sattler said when Posada discovered her baby had died, she waited 45 minutes before a friend called police. She also did not seek medical attention for the child.

He said an autopsy showed the underweight baby had injuries to his brain that were consistent with shaking, that both of his retinas were detached, and that he suffered several rib fractures, a broken femur, had whiplash, spinal cord injuries, and first and second-degree burns on his abdomen and groin area.

The autopsy also showed that the injuries dated from the time he was born until the day he died.

A teenage girl who babysat Kristopher testified that he was always screaming and shrieking as if he were in severe pain. Posada blamed the boy’s burn blisters on "diaper rash," the girl said.