Lubbock man charged with aggravated assault of a 7-week-old child

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - A Lubbock man has been charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon after his 7-week-old child was reported to have multiple injuries in September 2020.

The indictment lists five counts, saying 27-year-old Santiago Espinal-Orduna, caused the multiple injuries of the infant.

The police report says on Sept. 14, 2020, Lubbock Police received a call from a detective with the Ft. Worth Police Department. The detective said he was called to Cook’s Children’s Medical Center in Ft. Worth in reference to an injured child. The child had multiple injuries, including a broken humerus and multiple fractures which were consistent with child abuse, he believed. The detective believes the child was abused in Lubbock and possible other cities.

The report says the child was flown from Knox County Hospital to Cooks for his injuries. Espinal-Orduna told police they live in Lubbock and went to visit his parents at their house in Knox City.

The police report states an x-ray of the child from the hospital showed the majority of the child’s ribs were fractured and were in different stages of healing, there was a fractured finger, a fractured big toe, a fractured right clavicle, possible fractured left clavicle and possible rib fracture, a fractured humerus and hemorrhaging of blood vessels in both eyes, which is evidence of strangulation. Some of the injuries were in different stages of healing, and some of the injuries were new.

After further investigation, Espinal-Orduna signed a written statement, admitting to the abuse. The statement, which is included in the police report, was written by Espinal-Orduna. The statement said he stepped on the infant’s foot while he was laying on the floor. That after he got off from work one day, he fed the infant and burped him, but he wouldn’t stop crying so he squeezed him on the ribs repeatedly about four to five times. That during the two weeks his wife was working, he was frustrated or mad and he choked the infant five or six times. He said he bathed the child at home and while he was getting the infant’s shampoo and sponge, the infant fell from his bath chair and fell face and head first and hit “pretty hard.” He said he also picked the infant up by one arm and carried him like a football. He said his daughter yanked on the infant’s arm and jerked him, and the next day the infant wouldn’t move his right arm. That is when they took him to the Knox County Hospital to get tested and x-rayed.

Espinal-Orduna is currently in the Lubbock County Detention Center on a bond of $200,000. Has been in jail since Feb. 8, 2021.