King City woman sentenced for shaking baby

Monterey County District Attorney Dean D. Flippo announced on Thursday, September 20 that Judge Julie R. Culver sentenced 34-year-old Rosa Ramirez of King City, to 6 years in prison for committing child abuse causing great bodily injury. The charge is considered a “strike” under California’s Three Strikes law. On September 5 of 2017 at around 2:12 pm, officers from the King City Police Department and American Medical Response medical staff were dispatched to Ramirez’s residence with a report that a 4-month-old baby, was unconscious and not breathing. Upon arriving on the scene, Ramirez informed officers that she was the baby's babysitter and was watching over the baby while the baby’s parents were at work. Ramirez told the officers that the baby began to shake and foam at the mouth, and that she didn’t know what happened to her. The baby was transported to Mee Memorial Hospital and then to Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford Medical Center for treatment. Doctors discovered that the baby had intracranial bleeding and abusive head trauma that was consistent with being shaken aggressively. Ramirez subsequently admitted to officers that when she was watching over the baby, the baby would not stop crying, so she placed the baby in her cradle and shook the cradle in an up and down motion for 30 minutes. Ramirez later changed her statement and said she shook the baby for 20 seconds. Ramirez admitted she was telling the baby to “shut up” as she was shaking her. Ramirez stated that the baby then began to have seizures, foam at the mouth, and then became unresponsive. The baby survived the assault because of the extensive medical treatment she received. The case was investigated by District Attorney Investigators Maribel Torres-Hart, Jorge Ramirez, Jackie Meroney, Martin Sanchez, Peter Austen, Julie Callahan, Tony Rodriguez, and Jose Lopez, as well as Detective Joshue Partida and other officers from the King City Police Department. At the sentencing hearing, the baby's mother addressed the Court and described the significant impact Ramirez’s actions have had and will continue to have on her baby.