Amboy father accused of assaulting baby

An Amboy man is accused of assaulting his baby son, resulting in the child’s hospitalization.

Marco Antonio Olvera, 21, was charged last week with felony counts of 1st-degree assault and 3rd-degree assault of a victim under four years of age in Blue Earth County Court.

According to a criminal complaint:

The 5-month-old baby was transported by ambulance to a Mankato hospital at 6 a.m. on June 27 with head injuries.

Olvera told first responders the child had fallen from an infant rocker and hit his head on the leg of the rocker. The mother, who accompanied the child to the hospital, told staff she and Olvera heard a thud and crying, and that the child had fallen from the rocker.

Hospital staff found that the baby had a skull fracture and a head deformity and concluded that the child’s injuries were too severe for the type of fall described by the baby’s parents.  The baby was transported to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where an exam revealed a large bruise on the child’s cheek, injuries to the right side of his brain, fractures on both sides of the skull, three broken bones in his mid-spine, and two fractured ribs.  Doctors said the skull injuries were consistent with abusive head trauma.  The broken ribs were partially healed and were determined to be from a separate, but recent incident.

Later that day, detectives met with Olvera at his home.  Olvera told police he and the mother were sleeping when they heard a crash and the child crying.  He claimed the baby could roll, pick himself up, and hold himself up.

When investigators challenged his story, Olvera dropped a drinking glass on the leg of the bassinet, breaking the glass.  Olvera claimed the glass breaking proved the leg was hard and told the detective about “the physics” of glass versus baby.

The child’s mother reported she’d given the baby a bottle at about 4:30 or 5 a.m. and the boy was not injured at the time.  She said Olvera later heard a thud and the baby screaming.  Olvera told her to call an ambulance because the baby had a bump on the head.

When detectives told the mother they did not believe the bassinet caused the injury, she began to cry and said she didn’t know what happened except for what Olvera had told her.

While still at the hospital on June 27, Olvera sent the child’s mother a text that said: “What happened was I was making my son a bottle, I took him outta the crib nd had him in my arms, it was dark I tripped over the shii in the hallway nd we fell that’s why u heard the big thump.  I was drunk from the night before it was a accident…”

In an August interview with police, Olvera said he’d drunk an entire 1.5-liter bottle of Windsor the night of the incident.  The child woke up at 6 a.m., Olvera said and he grabbed him to make a bottle, but he tripped and they fell together.  He said he didn’t know what the child’s head hit.

Olvera claimed he had no idea how the child’s ribs were broken, but speculated he might have rolled off the couch or it happened at a relative’s house.

A witness told police that Olvera gets frustrated and overwhelmed when the baby will not stop crying.  Another witness said Olvera has anger issues. A witness who was at the scene the morning the ambulance was called said Olvera did not seem concerned about the situation.

Olvera is currently in custody at the Blue Earth County Jail.