Española City Police charged a mother and father with child abuse after their 18-month-old son appeared to suffer from an opiate overdose on March 25.
Officers charged Matthew Padilla, 34, and Caitlan Sanchez, 29, both of Española, with one count each of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, a first-degree felony, and child abuse for placing a child in a dangerous situation, a third-degree felony.
The mother’s first name is also spelled as Caitlyn in court documents.
The infant was treated with naloxone, which it responded to, at the Española Hospital, and was eventually flown to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at The University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The extent of injuries to the child is not listed in court documents and it is not clear if police knew the child’s condition when they charged the parents.
The third-degree count of child abuse refers to placing the parents’ other child, a 6-month-old, in a dangerous situation.
Española Police Officer Donivan Byers wrote in a criminal complaint for the arrest of both parents that he was sent at 10:23 p.m. March 25 to the Española Hospital for an infant’s overdose. The child was in the trauma room. Medical staff told him Padilla rushed into the emergency room with the infant, who responded to the application of naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan.
A preliminary examination for Sanchez is set for April 2 and for Padilla, it’s set for April 16.
Conflicting stories
Padilla and Sanchez told Byers two different stories about what happened.
Padilla, who was at the hospital with the child, told Byers that Sanchez left their house at Cook’s Mobile Home Park, earlier in the day with a friend in a blue Nissan Altima, but he didn’t know who the friend was. When Sanchez arrived home later in the day, she told him her friend was worried the infant may have ingested fentanyl while playing with the unnamed friend’s child, Byers wrote.
“Matthew Sr. stated that he then gave (the child) two bottles of milk before then watching (the child) begin to fall asleep while he was trying to talk to him,” Byers wrote. “Matthew Sr. advised that this was outside the normal behaviors of (the child) and at this time Sanchez rushed both Matthew Sr. and (the child) to the hospital before leaving them at the hospital.”
Padilla told Byers that he and Sanchez were in an on-again, off-again relationship and they shared custody. After checking Padilla for warrants, Byers arrested him. The child’s paternal grandmother then arrived at the hospital and said she has custody of the child on weekends, but no arrangement is written down, Byers wrote.
Officers arrested Sanchez at her house and brought her to the police station, where she agreed to speak to officers after being read her Miranda rights, including her right to remain silent. She told Byers that she hadn’t left the trailer that day, Byers wrote.
“Sanchez then explained that earlier in the day she was cleaning the stove with her 6 month old (child) on her chest,” Byers wrote. “Sanchez described a bed in the living room that Matthew Sr. was on with (the child) when Matthew Sr. asked Sanchez if (the child) was ‘throwing up.’”
Sanchez told Byers she gave the child a bath and saw he was wiping his nose, which was runny and red, and that his lips were changing color to an off-white, he wrote.
“At this point she approached Matthew Sr. an (sic) advised Sanchez that he believed (the child) had been exposed to what was initially described as a ‘piece of blue’ a street slang for fentanyl,” Byers wrote. “Later Sanchez described the fentanyl was white powder that Matthew Sr. normally kept in a brown box.”
Sanchez allegedly told Byers that she told Padilla they needed to take the child to the hospital and they did and that she left the hospital and returned to the house to calm down the 6-month-old baby, Byers wrote.
“Sanchez states that both Matthew Sr. and her use fentanyl daily and that Matthew Sr. uses nearly all day,” Byers wrote. “Sanchez states that the fentanyl usage is normally conducted in their vehicles or in a restroom in the residence. This would mean that both parents utilize the narcotics when providing care for both named children.”
Byers then tried to talk to Padilla again, who declined after being read his Miranda rights. He also booked Padilla on a warrant from probation, drafted after his child abuse arrest, he wrote.
The 6-month-old child was taken by Child Protective Services, Byers wrote.
Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid ordered Padilla be released on his own recognizance but be closely monitored by pre-trial services.
Madrid ordered Sanchez released on a $500 bond but, according to court documents and dockets, it does not appear he required her to report to pre-trial services, let alone to be on a high level of supervision like Padilla.
Past cases
Sanchez has a case pending in district court, where she is charged with third-degree child abuse by placing a child in a dangerous situation, criminal damage to property over $1,000 and a misdemeanor charge of obstructing an investigation of child abuse from September 2021.
In that case, Española Police Officer Maxim Alaniz wrote in a criminal complaint for Sanchez’s arrest that he was sent to the Española Hospital after staff ran a blood test on an 8-month-old girl and found cocaine in her system. Sanchez had taken her in because she was acting strange and lethargic.
She told Alaniz that her sister was with her at the house and she found her slumped against the child’s playpen, asleep, with a straw in her hand, and she was afraid her sister let drugs get into the playpen and that she lived there with her mother, Alaniz wrote.
When Alaniz investigated, he found that it was actually the child’s father and his mother, the child’s grandmother, who lived there. The grandmother told the officer that she hadn’t seen the baby or the woman for over three weeks, and she had been at a known drug house, Alaniz wrote.
When Alaniz came back to the hospital, staff told them the child started to overdose on opiates and had to be revived with nalaxone and that the only people to interact with the child since she had come in were medical staff and Sanchez. The doctor told Alaniz that Sanchez allegedly said there were fentanyl pills all over the floor in the house they were staying in. Eventually, the child was flown to The University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, Alaniz wrote.
A motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds is pending in that case.
Padilla has a case pending in district court for receiving stolen property between $500 and $2,500, a fourth degree felony, and fraudulent use of an illegally obtained credit card between $250 and $500.