Mom told of foster-care death

The Denver Post

Odelia Baca came to court Thursday hoping to make a case for getting her children back. Instead, she learned her 2 1/2-year-old boy died more than a week ago, the apparent victim of a beating in the foster home where he'd been staying since October."They pulled me out of courtroom - social worker, a detective and two lawyers," Baca said in a telephone interview Thursday night, fighting back tears. "They sat me down and said, "We've got some bad news.' My son, Miguel, is dead. I thought they were supposed to be safe in foster care waiting for me to go get them."

"She was really, really upset, especially when she learned of the circumstances," said Westminster police spokesman Dan Mayer.

Victim advocates were in the Adams County courtroom and pulled her aside to gently break the news, Mayer said.

The 19-year-old mother blames social services for Miguel's death.

"They should have checked the background before they placed him in a foster home. They (Miguel and his 14-month-old brother, Oswaldo) were safer with me."

Authorities had been searching for the mother since the boy's foster parents brought the unconscious tot to the hospital Feb. 1, saying he had fallen from a toilet. He died the next day.

When police first came to tell her about Miguel's death she had just moved out of the motel she was living in, she said Thursday night. She didn't have a television or a telephone until the last couple of days. She had heard something about a child in foster care dying, but she didn't make the connection.

A preliminary autopsy report states the boy died of a "non-accidental" head injury and had bruises over his entire body, police said.

Police said they plan to ask prosecutors to file first-degree murder charges against the foster father, 37-year-old Ricky Haney. "He's definitely a suspect," Mayer said.

Haney, who police say made a "feeble" attempt at suicide last week by taking Nyquil and Tylenol, had been hospitalized for a mental-health evaluation but was released from the hospital over the weekend.

He was questioned and released earlier this week pending further investigation. Miguel was one of four foster children in the home. The others - Miguel's brother and a 2-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister - were removed from the home last week.

The children had been placed in the home by a private child-placement agency, All About Kids.

Baca said she intends to continue to try to regain custody of her other son.

"I don't want to lose him," she sobbed. "I lost the one, I don't want to lose another one."

She lost custody of the boys when she tested positive for using crack cocaine during her second pregnancy. But now she's clean, she's got a job and she's living with her mother and brother in Aurora, she said.

"I'm going to get my last one," she said. "I better get my last one. I know I am ... I'm doing everything they want me to do."