Gustine baby’s bleeding brain too damaged to come from short fall, doctor says

A pediatrician testified Thursday the injuries to the brain of a 9-month-old Gustine boy who prosecutors say was killed by his father were the “worst that I’d ever seen (and) have ever seen.”

Jurors heard from Dr. Mansi Desai, a pediatrician who examined Maddix Ramsour hours after he was taken to the Fresno Community Regional Center with brain injuries.

The boy’s father, Andrew L. Sanchez, has been accused of murder and child cruelty in the child’s death. Sanchez maintains the injuries happened when the child rolled off of a 2-foot-high bed when the father looked away while changing the baby’s diaper. He has pleaded not guilty.

“That level of bleeding would be unusual of a fall of that height,” Desai said.

The infant died in surgery on March 5, 2015, after he was injured at a home in the 30000 block of Cottonwood Road in Gustine, according to authorities. Merced County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Sanchez in July of that year.

Desai said she’s seen “30 or 40” cases of what she believed to be child abuse in her career as a pediatrician, adding she’s a “mandatory reporter,” which means she’s required to report suspected child abuse and could face criminal charges if she did not.

After being peppered with questions from Sanchez’s public defender, defense attorney Stephanie Jamieson, Desai noted she is not a neurosurgeon, researcher or expert on brains.

Maddix’s mother, Rebecca Ramsour, who also testified Thursday, said she saw Sanchez slap his 3-year-old daughter in the face about a month before the son’s death.

“I told him he shouldn’t be hitting the kids in the head,” she said, adding he ignored her.

Ramsour said she was interviewed by deputies and detectives several times after the child’s death, but admitted she did not tell them about the slap until December 2015, months after Sanchez was arrested.

“I was distraught. I didn’t have a clear mind,” she testified when asked why she didn’t tell investigators about the incident sooner. “As time went on, I could look back and think about things.”

She also testified that Sanchez mocked her for crying weeks after Maddix died, saying “What are you going to do, cry your life away?”

On three prior occasions, the baby had fallen off of a bed, Ramsour said, but appeared fine after being soothed. She said she did not take the baby to a doctor after the falls, and admitted she had not taken the child to the doctor for routine visits since he turned 4 months old.

Those prior falls could have caused the last fall to be deadly, the defense has argued.

The Merced County Superior Courthouse is closed Friday for a holiday. The trial resumes at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Gustine baby’s bleeding brain too damaged to come from short fall, doctor says."