Maria Rivera's 11-month-old daughter, Stormi Rivera, is not expected to survive injuries sustained while with her mother yesterday, which Rivera claims were caused by the girl falling down the stairs.
Detectives say hospital staff informed them "the only way to sustain these types of injuries [is] by severely shaking the baby."
That may not even be the worst part outlined in court documents obtained by New Times, as Rivera, 21, claimed that after Stormi fell down the stairs, she shook the girl "on and off for about twenty to thirty minutes," and never called 9-1-1.
Instead, Rivera called her mother, who lives in Maricopa -- in Pinal County -- and had her mother drive over to her Phoenix apartment to look at Stormi.
Rivera's mother arrived at her daughter's apartment, noticed the baby was unresponsive, and "immediately" took her to the hospital.
After hospital staff told police about the girl's numerous injuries, including bleeding in the brain -- injuries which hospital staff could have only come from shaking the girl -- homicide detectives interviewed Rivera.
Rivera claimed the girl had fallen down the stairs, which police say is entirely inconsistent with the girl's injuries.
Rivera told police she tried numerous "methods" to revive Stormi, like the aforementioned shaking for up to half an hour. Her other "methods" included tapping Stormi's face, using wipes on her face, and eventually performing CPR, according to the documents.
After all this, police say it was still an additional 90 minutes before Rivera's mother arrived and Stormi was finally brought to the hospital.
Police say that for the first three hours of the interview, Rivera denied any involvement in causing the girl's injuries, instead saying that the girl had fallen down the stairs while she was holding her.
According to the documents, Stormi also had a "human adult bite" on her left thigh, which Rivera had no explanation for.
Rivera faces two counts of child abuse -- for now -- and her bond was set at $200,000.
