Parents Get 9 Years for Abusing Baby Son

Two parents were sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for abusing their baby son to such a degree he sustained brain damage and is unable to walk.

Johnny Andres Gonzalez, 38, and Jacqueline Navarro, 45, both of Lindsay, in Tulare County, were convicted June 30 of felony child abuse and endangerment with a sentencing enhancement for great bodily injury on a child younger than 5.

Their son, Journey, was brought to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach Aug. 1, 2020, showing “signs of severe malnourishment” and appearing to be “experiencing hypoxis, a lack of oxygen to the brain,” Deputy District Attorney Bethel Cope-Vega said in a sentencing brief. The infant was then transferred to Children’s Hospital of Orange County underweight, she added.

A doctor testified during the trial that the victim’s neck was “significantly thinner than his head,” and had “conspicuously swollen hands and feet,” with a glucose level of 10, which was “the lowest glucose (the doctor) had ever seen in his 35-year career including both children and adults,” the prosecutor said.

The doctors concluded Journey was “chronically malnourished,” triggering multiple seizures that choked off oxygen to the brain, leaving it damaged, Cope-Vega said.

A nurse testified visiting Navarro’s home in October 2019 when he was born and instructing her on how to nourish the infant because he was born underweight, Cope-Vega said.

Gonzalez’s former roommate testified about concerns with how the baby was being fed. She said the baby had a rash all over, but he brushed it off, Cope-Vega said.

Gonzalez’s sons, 13 and 18, testified that instead of formula the baby was given “blended smoothies,” Cope-Vega said. That contradicted Navarro’s claims that she was feeding formula to the baby when they went on a vacation trip to Costa Mesa, the prosecutors said.

Gonzalez also brushed off his brother’s concerns about the baby’s diet and the sibling testified they would call Journey “`Bobblehead’ due to the fact his head was disproportionate to his neck and body,” Cope-Vega said.

“Journey requires total care for the rest of his life with the inability to walk, talk, eat or even cough on his own, with a life expectancy of only 10 years old,” Cope-Vega said. “Journey’s current physical condition consists of spastic quadriplegia which has resulted in poor neck control and no trunk control. He has the language skill development of a 3- to 5-month-old and the social and emotional development of a 6- to 8-month-old.”

Journey also struggles with seizures, muscle pain and stomach and digestive pain, the prosecutor said. He also has “restrictive lung disease that causes frequent lung infections,” she added.

His vision has also been affected, allowing him to just “track high contrast colored objects or illuminated objects,” and must wear sunglasses, she said.

When Navarro began arguing the facts of the case at her sentencing hearing Friday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Knox reminded her the trial was over and that he had denied her request for a new trial. Navarro and Gonzalez represented themselves without an attorney.

“These are all the things you already argued in trial,” Knox told Navarro. “There is no legal basis to grant you a new trial. … I don’t need to hear the same arguments.”

Navarro said she had “never been in trouble with the law” before. Knox said he would consider that in his sentence.

Knox noted that the two have never shown “any remorse for their conduct.” The two said they couldn’t show any emotion as they acted as their own attorneys.

Gonzalez blamed his son’s maladies on a “medical anomaly.”

The judge told the parents that he believed they both loved Journey.

“Do I cry every night? Yes, I do,” Navarro said.

Gonzalez has 152 days credit behind bars since his conviction and Navarro had 138 days.