CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A 10-week-old girl in San Patricio County is now on life support being treated for bleeding in the brain after police say she was brutally beat by her father.
Her father is now behind bars.
It's being called the most horrific case of child abuse San Patricio County investigators have seen. Mathis police even called in the Texas Rangers to help.
The Mathis Police Department was called by Driscoll Children's Hospital and made aware of the infant and its injuries that apparently occured in an apartment located inside the Mariposa Gardens in Mathis.
The first report made to EMS when the child was reported having difficulty breathing was around 5 a.m. Monday. The child didn't have the outward appearance of having any injuries. It wasn't until x-rays were taken that the true extent of those injuries became clear.
The child had eight factured ribs -- five posterior ribs on left side, meaning the back side of the ribs, and three posterior fractured ribs on the right side of her body -- and also suffered from bleeding around the brain.
As of Tuesday, the baby remains on life support.
According to an arrest affidavit, Leonard Ruiz Echavarrie confessed to injuring the child by accident because he was panicking when he thought the child wasn't breathing.
In the meantime, the case is still being investigated.