A pregnant mother of four is spending the holidays behind bars in lieu of $1 million bail, and if the 26-year-old Santa Ana resident is ultimately convicted of having tortured her 15-month-old twins, she could be off to prison for 26 years to life, according to prosecutors.
Sacil Siglaly Lucero was scheduled to be arraigned at the Santa Ana Central Jail Tuesday on charges related to severe injuries inflicted on the boy and girl, including skull fractures, rib fractures and bruising, states a release from the Orange County District Attorney’s office (OCDA).
A friend of Lucero, who claimed the girl had fallen in her bathroom, took the lifeless and unresponsive child to UCI Medical Center in Orange on Sunday, when upon examining her hospital staff contacted the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD). The girl suffered multiple injuries, including major head trauma. She is being treated for brain bleed and partial partial paralysis and, as of Tuesday, was listed in critical condition, the OCDA says.
Special Crimes Unit detectives interviewed Lucero, who allegedly confessed to having intentionally caused the girl’s injuries, according to an SAPD advisory that adds she was arrested around 6:30 a.m. Sunday and booked into Orange County Jail right after that. The OCDA claims that around 8 p.m. Saturday, Lucero had slammed the girl’s head into a metal bed frame until she became unresponsive.
The physical abuse to the twin boy was discovered when detectives checked on the welfare of Lucero’s other children, states the SAPD, which notes he was taken to Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, where doctors found a skull fracture and multiple rib fractures.
The two remaining children appeared unharmed and were left in the care of their father, SAPD says. The unborn baby is also apparently fine, the OCDA notes.
Lucero allegedly admitted during a second interview with detectives that she began abusing the twins upon discovering she was pregnant with her fifth child, according to police. The OCDA says the abuse to the twins happened from Nov. 1 through this past Saturday,
The mother was charged Tuesday with felony assault on a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in paralysis, two counts of child torture abuse and a sentencing enhancement for great bodily injury to a child under 5 years old.
The investigation continues, and anyone with information is asked to call Detective Partida at 714.245.8660 or Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.