Las Cruces Teen Mom To Be Tried As Adult In Baby’s Death

She’s barely old enough to drive, but a teenage mom in Las Cruces faces the possibility of life in prison.

Seventeen-year-old Diana Goenaga was arrested at El Paso’s Las Palmas Medical Center earlier this month after her 2-month-old daughter, Jade, died as a result of severe head trauma. Investigators at the hospital determined the baby had undergone severe head injuries consistent with “shaken baby syndrome”.

Goenaga was subsequently charged with Intentional Child Abuse Resulting In Death– a charge that carries the possibility of life in prison.

ABC-7 got a hold of new court documents in the case this morning. According to the statement of facts, Goenaga gave investigators inconsistent stories as to why the baby may have been hurt so badly.

The document states Goenaga told investigators she had bumped Baby Jade’s head on a stool weeks before the infant was taken to the hospital for treatment. It also states that Goenaga told investigators she had bumped the baby’s head against a car door on a different occasion. The document states Goenaga told investigators that if she herself hadn’t caused any of the injuries, then a “ghost” must have done it.

After reading some of the details in that statement of facts, ABC-7 spoke with a pediatrician independent of the case. Dr. Joanne Ray said she was angry when she first heard about the accusations, because “in Dona Ana county, parents like to kill their babies. This is a bad place to be if you’re a baby.”

Dr. Ray explained babies are very delicate when they’re two months old.

“At two months, their weight is 25 percent (concentrated) in their head, so we’re talking about a big, heavy head on a tiny, delicate neck,” she said. “What happens with abusive head trauma, is the skull is a hard case and the baby’s brain is soft and very very delicate, and the blood vessels are delicate because they’re not formed. As the baby’s head goes forward, the brain slaps against the skull.” She said that can damage the blood vessels, which in turn leak blood into the baby’s skull.

When asked whether a bump on a car door or stool could amount to that kind of trauma, Dr. Ray was skeptical.

“If I knew a child had died and had those brain findings, and the parent said ‘I bumped my kid on the door’… I would say ‘I don’t think so,” she said.

For now Diana Goenaga is at the Dona Ana County Juvenile Detention Facility in Las Cruces without bound. She will be tried as an adult.