Elioreth Jimenez-Marin was arrested and charged with felony child abuse in October 2024.
Jimenez-Marin, 26, admitted to shaking an 11-month-old boy she was babysitting on Sept. 27, 2024, leaving the child with a brain bleed and lasting developmental effects.
During the babysitter’s sentencing in 4th District Court Wednesday, March 19, the boy’s mother told a judge her son’s life had been “changed completely.”
“It was very hard to see my son suffering from a lot of pain, in a hospital bed, fighting for his life,” the mother said through an interpreter.
She said her son has already had three surgeries, with at least one more planned to reconstruct his skull.
“I am very sad, and I cry because it’s almost 18 months, and he’s not able to walk and he’s not talking,” she told Judge Jennifer Mabey.
The mother said she’s afraid of what her baby’s future will be like because of the brain injury.
“Because of her, my son will fight for his life forever,” she said. “I feel like a part of him died.”
In an interview Oct. 1, Jimenez-Marin told Wasatch County Sheriff’s deputies she was watching four young children that day. She said she changed the boy’s diaper and then left the room to throw it away and use the restroom.
When she returned, she said she saw the baby “lying at the bottom of the stairs,” unresponsive. Jimenez-Marin said she tried to shake him awake, but he remained unresponsive.
In court Wednesday, her attorney, Jeremy Deus, said there was no question the case is a tragedy.
“My client would certainly deny that there’s any sort of intent to cause any sort of injury to the child,” he said.
Jimenez-Marin agreed. She told the judge through an interpreter that she has two young children of her own and would never harm a child purposely.
Through tears, Jimenez-Marin asked the boy’s mother to forgive her and said she did all she could to save the baby’s life.
“I ask for forgiveness; I ask the mother for this forgiveness. It was not my intention,” she said. “God knows the person that I am, and I thank God that [he] is still alive, because everybody knows that the actions that I took kept him alive.”
Jimenez-Marin previously told deputies when she couldn’t wake the boy, she ran out of the house with the child in her arms to find help. A neighbor drove them to the Heber Valley Hospital, where the baby underwent emergency surgery for a brain bleed.
Mabey said she struggled to decide on an appropriate sentence for Jimenez-Marin.
“There are times that, no matter what sentence I impose, it seems inadequate, because at the end of the day, [the child’s] condition doesn’t get better because of something that is included in this sentence,” she said.
The judge said she was suspending a prison sentence and placing Jimenez-Marin on probation. However, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement told the court it intends to deport her.
Mabey said if Jimenez-Marin reenters the country without legal permission, that would violate her probation, and she would be taken into custody.
