This is my story, life as a victim. I was born February 14, 2002, Valentine’s day and I was premature. I was curious about the outside world and had no idea what it had in store for me. Where do I start to begin my story? In my brief five months here on earth, it was filled with so much pain. I have been told by angels that childhood is suppose to be full of joy. I did not know any of this. Not once did I have a friendly face to reach out to or a hand to hold onto. Instead, no one answered my cries. Not crying from being hungry or tired but crying from my ribs being broken. I was beaten and bitten by the only family I knew. One night my parents were drinking beer again with my uncle. My mother passes out and leaves me with my dad and his brother. They continue to drink while playing games by throwing me into the air, and not always catching me. Where is my mother? Where is anyone to help me? What more do I have to endure? Then my uncle rapes me, I am only five months old. My injuries are severe and my anus is torn. I lay here crying while my dad and his brother fall asleep. The following day, they awake and realize that I am not well. They rush me to the hospital but it is too late for me. I have a broken skull and several broken bones. I also have bite marks and internal injures from being raped by my uncle. My injuries are documented by my autopsy photos. This is the only picture available of me because during my brief life my family never took a single picture of me. I am not sad now and I am smiling down from above, smiling at mommy, the only mom I have come to know. Susana Martinez, District Attorney that worked so hard to pass my bill, Brianna’s Bill. What happened to me should happen to no child. Remember me always, Love, Fly high baby girl,even though we do not know you hold a special place in so many hearts.
The short life and brutal death of Baby Brianna
The short life and brutal death of Baby Brianna
Correction appended
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KRQE) - Brianna Lopez would be 6 years old now had her death at 6 months not revealed perhaps the most brutal child-abuse case in state history and prompted a major change in New Mexico law.
But as the July 19 anniversary of her death nears, some say the changes have not gone far enough.
The story of Baby Brianna is a hard one, but it is the ugly reality of child abuse. Violent family members caused her death while others hid what they knew was going on.
"They raped her; they beat her," said District Attorney Susana Martinez who prosecuted the case. "She had bite marks on her face, cheek, head, arms, legs, chest, torso, everywhere.
"Literally bruised from head to toe, from the top of her head all throughout her body all the way to the big toe on her right foot."
She was beaten and raped by her own family.
"Massive bruising on the head, and then her little fingers were lacerated, toes," said Detective Lindell Wright who was the first officer on the scene.
Brianna died on July 19, 2002. When Wright saw her body at a hospital, he remembers one thought going through his mind: "I've got a lot to do."
Later, when he had time to look back, "I cried my eyes out. It will stay with me for the rest of my life."
Investigators said Brianna's mother and father,Stephanie Lopez and& Andy Walters,and her uncle Steven Lopez were responsible.
The night before, Steven and Andy threw Brianna to the ceiling, then let her slam to the ground. And they had raped her time and time again.
Brianna's mother had bitten her child. The source of the other bruises remains a mystery.
"Bite marks throughout her body; there were old and new," Wright said. "She had skull fractures that were old and new.
"She had bleeding on the brain both old and new which means she had been abused physically her entire life."
And while all the abuse was going on another uncle and a grandmother knew but never reported it or tried to stop it.
Martinez won convictions and maximum sentences for the three abusers.
"It tests you to the point you're not sure you can speak," Martinez said."You're afraid that the emotion will take over."
For some Martinez's successful prosecution only highlighted shortcomings in the law.
When Baby Brianna was killed a person who committed intentional child abuse resulting in death faced a maximum of 18 years in prison. Her case brought on a major change.
"Eighteen years for the life of a child?" State Sen. Mary Jane Garcia Ana said. "I thought it was absurd."
It took Garcia three years of trying, but she changed the law to make the crime punishable by a life sentence.
"If the judges continue to sentence to the maximum under the new law, the law is sufficient," Martinez said. "But if a judge doesn't sentence them to the maximum to try to give some sort of deterrent effect to the rest of the community we've lost."
Both Martinez and Garcia said more needs to be done to punish people like Brianna's grandmother and uncle who fail to report abuse.
"Those two individuals knew she was being abused," Martinez said. "She was full of bruises that were old: green, brown, yellow-colored.
"Had they reported it early, had they and insisted on that child not being abused maybe we would have never had her death take place."
For failing to report the abuse the three were sentenced to 30 days in jail. The maximum is one year.
"I think perhaps we ought to try to make it five years at least," Garcia said. "I would go for something like that, and I would certainly try it."
However Wright said it's not just the law that needs to change.
"I think a lot of proactive still needs to happen as far as young parents need to have proper education, proper support systems," Wright said. "I feel a lot of young parents are struggling by themselves.
"They don't have anywhere to turn, and it is the chemistry of child abuse."
Brianna's story still brings much pain to the people in Doña Ana County who came together after her death, paid for her casket and burial and claimed her body when no one else would.
"The community felt that Baby Brianna could be their child, their granddaughter, their daughter, their niece," Las Cruces resident Edgar Lopez said.
Baby Brianna is now locked up in a cage built around her grave by her family to keep the community who loved her so much out. It is a mess, unkept and full of trash.
"They were asked, and they said they just wanted to be left alone and they wanted Brianna to be left alone," Martinez said.
Inside is a cherub with a finger raised to her lips. Some believe it's a message.
"My first thought was, 'Let's not talk about what's occurred here,'" Lopez said.
Yet the community vows to not let that happen. People still leave flowers here and have built another marker.
The people of this community will never forget Brianna and neither will the detectives, social workers and prosecutors who worked on her case.
Wright said they never found pictures of Brianna in her..
(Baby Brianna's mother)
Kelsey was born on December 28, 2002 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to divorced parents. She lived with her mother, and maintained contact with her paternal family. The first two years of her life were uneventful. Before January 2005, no signs of abuse were reported to authorities, nor noticed by family members nor Kelsey's day care staff.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KRQE) - Brianna Lopez would be 6 years old now had her death at 6 months not revealed perhaps the most brutal child-abuse case in state history and prompted a major change in New Mexico law.
But as the July 19 anniversary of her death nears, some say the changes have not gone far enough.
The story of Baby Brianna is a hard one, but it is the ugly reality of child abuse. Violent family members caused her death while others hid what they knew was going on.
"They raped her; they beat her," said District Attorney Susana Martinez who prosecuted the case. "She had bite marks on her face, cheek, head, arms, legs, chest, torso, everywhere.
"Literally bruised from head to toe, from the top of her head all throughout her body all the way to the big toe on her right foot."
She was beaten and raped by her own family.
"Massive bruising on the head, and then her little fingers were lacerated, toes," said Detective Lindell Wright who was the first officer on the scene.
Brianna died on July 19, 2002. When Wright saw her body at a hospital, he remembers one thought going through his mind: "I've got a lot to do."
Later, when he had time to look back, "I cried my eyes out. It will stay with me for the rest of my life."
Investigators said Brianna's mother and father,Stephanie Lopez and& Andy Walters,and her uncle Steven Lopez were responsible.
The night before, Steven and Andy threw Brianna to the ceiling, then let her slam to the ground. And they had raped her time and time again.
Brianna's mother had bitten her child. The source of the other bruises remains a mystery.
"Bite marks throughout her body; there were old and new," Wright said. "She had skull fractures that were old and new.
"She had bleeding on the brain both old and new which means she had been abused physically her entire life."
And while all the abuse was going on another uncle and a grandmother knew but never reported it or tried to stop it.
Martinez won convictions and maximum sentences for the three abusers.
"It tests you to the point you're not sure you can speak," Martinez said."You're afraid that the emotion will take over."
For some Martinez's successful prosecution only highlighted shortcomings in the law.
When Baby Brianna was killed a person who committed intentional child abuse resulting in death faced a maximum of 18 years in prison. Her case brought on a major change.
"Eighteen years for the life of a child?" State Sen. Mary Jane Garcia Ana said. "I thought it was absurd."
It took Garcia three years of trying, but she changed the law to make the crime punishable by a life sentence.
"If the judges continue to sentence to the maximum under the new law, the law is sufficient," Martinez said. "But if a judge doesn't sentence them to the maximum to try to give some sort of deterrent effect to the rest of the community we've lost."
Both Martinez and Garcia said more needs to be done to punish people like Brianna's grandmother and uncle who fail to report abuse.
"Those two individuals knew she was being abused," Martinez said. "She was full of bruises that were old: green, brown, yellow-colored.
"Had they reported it early, had they and insisted on that child not being abused maybe we would have never had her death take place."
For failing to report the abuse the three were sentenced to 30 days in jail. The maximum is one year.
"I think perhaps we ought to try to make it five years at least," Garcia said. "I would go for something like that, and I would certainly try it."
However Wright said it's not just the law that needs to change.
"I think a lot of proactive still needs to happen as far as young parents need to have proper education, proper support systems," Wright said. "I feel a lot of young parents are struggling by themselves.
"They don't have anywhere to turn, and it is the chemistry of child abuse."
Brianna's story still brings much pain to the people in Doña Ana County who came together after her death, paid for her casket and burial and claimed her body when no one else would.
"The community felt that Baby Brianna could be their child, their granddaughter, their daughter, their niece," Las Cruces resident Edgar Lopez said.
Baby Brianna is now locked up in a cage built around her grave by her family to keep the community who loved her so much out. It is a mess, unkept and full of trash.
"They were asked, and they said they just wanted to be left alone and they wanted Brianna to be left alone," Martinez said.
Inside is a cherub with a finger raised to her lips. Some believe it's a message.
"My first thought was, 'Let's not talk about what's occurred here,'" Lopez said.
Yet the community vows to not let that happen. People still leave flowers here and have built another marker.
The people of this community will never forget Brianna and neither will the detectives, social workers and prosecutors who worked on her case.
Wright said they never found pictures of Brianna in her..
(Baby Brianna's mother)Case 2
The story of Baby Kelsey..
On January 17, 2005, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) first confirmed abuse against Kelsey's mother after Kelsey was taken to a local emergency room with a broken collarbone, multiple bruises and abrasions to Kelsey's lower back, buttocks, and thighs.
In April 2005, both of Kelsey's legs were broken. Medical examiners determined these were spiral fractures in different stages of healing and were caused by child abuse. After this incident, Kelsey was taken into OKDHS (State's) custody.
On June 15, 2005, Kelsey was placed into the home of biological mother Raye Dawn Smith and stepfather Michael Lee Porter by Associate District Judge Craig Key, against an OKDHS recommendation. The judge stated that the abuser was "unknown"
Kelsey Shelton Smith-Briggs died on October 11, 2005 at the home of her mother, Raye Dawn Smith, and her stepfather, Michael Lee Porter in Meeker, Oklahoma. Her death was ruled a homicide from blunt force trauma to the abdomen
From the moment I knew about these babies..they have been in my mind since then..May God keep them ..They are too precious for a human being to keep..they belong to JESUS and I am glad Jesus took them with Him..
These flowers are for u lil' Princesss...:)I sang this song for you..and dedicated to u..;)
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