Maria Macias

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby Maria never get to hear the sound of her own name. She was only four days old when she died. She was unable to survive despite an emergency cesarean section performed after her mother Anna Macias was shot and killed by her boyfriend. Two days before her birth, caseworkers from Mesa County Human Services chose not to investigate claims that Macias was regularly beaten by her boyfriend, Lonnie Herrera.

 

Maria died in April 2008, weeks after Macias told an intoxicated Herrera she wanted to leave him. She told deputies he stalked her as she carried her one year old son through the home. He punched her back and hit her face with a closed fist. Macias’ then eight year old daughter told someone at school, who alerted Human Services. When caseworkers went to investigate, they could not locate Herrera or Macias and believed the two were in Durango. Without a police report, caseworkers did not open an investigation.

 

Herrera shot and killed Macias two days later in Grand Junction. The gunshot wound to Macias’ neck that decreased blood flow to Maria, cutting off oxygen to the developing baby. After four days on life support, Maria died April 4, 2008. She was named after she died.

 

The decision by caseworkers not to investigate the eight year old’s claims of abuse led to Maria’s death and that report was far from the first complaint that Human Services had received about Macias and Herrera.  As a result of those earlier investigations, Macias’ three oldest children were removed from her custody and placed in the care of their grandmother who was not properly evaluated in her abilities as a caregiver. The children drifted between two homes and were still moving back and forth as another child was born, and Macias became pregnant with Maria.

 

Herrera was charged with second degree murder. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to at least 96 years in prison.

 

 

 

 

 

http://childfatalities.denverpost.com/#id=34&name=MaciasMaria