Indianapolis couple face charges after 3-year-old found with severe head trauma

DISCLAIMER: This story contains descriptions of child abuse and may not be suitable for all readers.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis couple faces time behind bars after police found their “emaciated” 3-year-old daughter unresponsive from severe head injuries that resulted in a brain bleed.

Prosecutors filed charges against Joshua Cajigas, 24, and and his girlfriend, Mellie Jackson, 22, on Friday. Jackson is not the girl’s biological mother, detectives noted in a probable cause affidavit.

An incomplete 911 call came in around 5:50 p.m. Aug. 7. IMPD officers dispatched to the apartment in the 7400 block of Waterfront Drive “knocked multiple times” before Cajigas opened the door, saying his daughter was unconscious.

The child was located in a bedroom with Jackson; she was soaking wet and covered in “large bruises all over (her) legs and lower torso.” After the girl lost consciousness, Cajigas claimed he jumped in the cold shower with her to try to wake her up. Jackson was trying to clothe the girl when police arrived.

Cajigas and Jackson both told officers the child had hit her head when attempting to pick up her 1-year-old cousin; bruises on her legs were explained to be from a bookshelf that fell on her. All other cuts and bruises Cajigas provided some explanation for, detectives say.

But a later examination from a nurse practitioner determined the injuries to be “consistent with abusive head trauma and inflicted non-accidental trauma/physical abuse.”

Extensive bruising ran across the child’s back, legs, and face. Medical staff even found bruising in and behind the child’s ears, along with a fracture to her maxilla on the right side of her face.

Cajigas informed police during an interview that he did use a belt to discipline his daughter as “smacking on the hands no longer worked.” Court documents say Cajigas also admitted to making the 3-year-old do various forms of exercise as punishment, such as wall sits and runs outside.

Cajigas said this was to discipline her for wetting the bed.

When the child arrived at Riley, detectives say her Glasgow Coma Score, or consciousness level, was the lowest it could possibly be before being declared brain dead. She was rushed into emergency surgery to repair a brain bleed, and was said to be in critical condition as of Friday.

Detectives say she has a “very high probability of death.”

Cajigas and Jackson face various neglect charges. Those are listed below.

Cajigas:

• Neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury
• Domestic battery causing serious bodily injury
• Battery causing serious bodily injury

Jackson:

• Neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury

Cajigas and Jackson were both due in court for hearings on Tuesday. Jury trials for the pair have been set for Oct. 14.

Help is available for victims of domestic violence. Below is a list of suggested resources on the Domestic Violence Network website:

• National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788
• National Domestic Violence Hotline en español: 800-799-7233 o texto “START” al 88788
• Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence: 24-hour hotline available at 800-332-7385
• Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking
• La Plaza Indy
• The Julian Center
• Indiana Child Abuse Hotline: 800-800-5556
• National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673

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