In Loving Memory Of Angelina Espalin

Описание: Oceanside foster mother arrested in death of 4-year-old (December 11, 2007)

Police on Monday arrested an Oceanside woman on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of her 4-year-old foster daughter last year, authorities said Tuesday.

Dania Haros, 23, was arrested on suspicion of causing fatal injuries to Angelina Espalin, who died Nov. 19, 2006, Oceanside police said.

Angelina suffered head injuries and was unresponsive when Haros and Haros' husband took her to Tri-City Medical Center that day. She was transferred to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego and died that night.

Lt. Mike Goldsmith said the child was injured in the family's home the same day. Haros told investigators that Angelina had been hurt after refusing to go to bed, he said.

"(She said) it was not punishment. The child was just being a kid and not wanting to go to bed, so she put her into bed and kind of pushed her, and there were some injuries associated with that," Goldsmith said. No weapons were used in the assault, he added.

However, Angelina's injuries were later determined to be inconsistent with Haros' explanation. The county medical examiner's office ruled Angelina's death, of blunt force head trauma, a homicide, prompting a yearlong investigation, police said.

The probe ended with the arrest of Haros, who was booked into the Vista jail on suspicion of assaulting a child and first-degree murder. She is scheduled to be arraigned today, according to the county Sheriff's Department.

Police do not expect to make any other arrests, adding that Haros' husband was not involved nor present at the time of the incident, Goldsmith said.

At the time of the Angelina's death, she had been living with her 2-year-old sister at Haros' Maxson Street home, which police said had no history of complaints.

The sister, who police said was not injured, was taken from the home after Angelina died and put into protective custody in San Diego, the girls' grandmother, Pamela Espalin, said. The younger girl has since been adopted, she said.

Espalin said Tuesday that the arrest comes after "a long, long wait."

"We're trying to recover," she said of her family. "We talk about it all the time. There are anger issues, this is a hard thing."

Espalin said the girls had been put into Haros' home less than six months before Angelina's death. The girls had been in a "very stable" home with another family before, and Espalin said she and her family never received an explanation as to why they were moved into Haros' custody.

The biological family was also never able to talk to the social worker who moved the sisters, and was "lost in the system," which Espalin said is in need of "serious reform."

"I don't want this to happen to another child," she said.