SAN ANTONIO – Deputies arrested a woman on Sunday and charged her with beating two teenagers with an aluminum bat.
Marissa Monica Cano, 38, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Authorities became aware of the beatings after a 15-year-old victim escaped the house where he was being kept on Saturday and ran to a Sonic in the 3000 block of TPC Parkway for help. There, someone helped him call 911. According to an arrest affidavit, Cano's address is a mile from the Sonic.
The document said the 15-year-old had severe injuries including "severe bruising to the back, buttocks, upper thighs, upper arms." Sheriff Javier Salazar specifically mentioned an injury on the child's lower extremities that was "extremely infected."
"It was heart breaking to hear from kids' side of things," Salazar said. "They mentioned that this abuse -- in their estimation, it wasn't necessarily abuse... Almost indicating this was a normal way of life for these kids. You and I know that's not."
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The 15-year-old had injuries consistent with a victim of continuous child abuse. Investigators estimated he had been abused for "several years." Salazar said the teen was "skin and bones."
"Not only did he suffer some pretty substantial injuries, the young man was severely underweight," Salazar said. "For a 15-year-old boy, he's only about 70 pounds."
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The teen told deputies Cano abused him, his 8-year-old sister and 17-year-old brother -- often beating them with the baseball bat, starving them "like animals" and locking them in a garage.
The kids are not related to Cano. Salazar said the kids' parent lives elsewhere are often left in Cano's care.
Salazar said the two teens weren't in enrolled in school, but couldn't speak on the status of the 8-year-old.
"At this point they're not able to tell us when the last time was they've been to school," Salazar said. "It's pretty obvious to us at this point that these people -- this lady -- kept these young men out of school to avoid any suspicion on the part of authorities."
As of Sunday, Cano is charged with beating the 15-year-old and the 17-year-old. A spokesperson for the sheriff's office said Child Protective Services and BCSO are still investigating the third case. It's unclear when or if Cano will be charged for the abuse of the 8-year-old.
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Deputies went to Cano's home Saturday night, but there was minimal cooperation from those inside the home. Neighbors told KSAT 12 they saw a heavy police presence Saturday night and again on Sunday morning.
"(Investigators) worked the case as far as they could last night, and this morning we received further information on where the suspect was," Salazar said. "So, they were able to get back out there and get her picked up, as well as picking up the 8-year-old girl that we weren't able to find (Saturday) night."
The kids told investigators the abuse took place whenever "they did something bad or broke something in the house."
"Very tragic case -- several deputies on scene actually mentioned this case evoked memories of the Jovonie Ochoa case from many years ago where, under similar circumstances, the young boy, about 4 years of age was basically starved and beaten to death by a suspect," Salazar said.
Salazar said the 15-year-old's injuries are in various stages of healing and infection. He expects more arrests to be made.
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"There are other persons of interest that we'd prefer that they come looking for us and tell us their side of the story before we go looking for them," Salazar said.
Deputies removed a total of five kids from the home -- the three victims and Cano's two children. Salazar said Cano's kids didn't show any signs of abuse.
Salazar stressed the importance of speaking out if signs of abuse are present.
"I just can't stress enough the importance that if anybody has any sort of feeling that this is occurring in any family situation -- be it this case or another -- give us a call and let us know," Salazar said. "A lot of people don't want to get involved and 'you know, I don't want to say anything because I may be wrong and I'm afraid to say anything.' Look, call us. If you're wrong, you're wrong and no harm no foul, but the worst thing that you could do is not report something like this and then we find out that a child died."
