3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2017
South Bend mom not guilty in baby’s death
Immediately
taken by ICE
for deportation
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
SOUTH BEND, Wash. —
For three days, Maria Perez
Santiago, 32, tried to keep her
composure as witnesses and
lawyers discussed her baby
girl’s 2015 death in gruesome
detail.
When Pacific County
Superior Court Judge Doug
Goelz acquitted her this
month of homicide by abuse,
manslaughter and reckless
endangerment on the third
day of her bench trial, she col-
lapsed in a sudden torrent of
tears.
In the early hours of Aug.
29, 2015, a volunteer EMT
rushed to a house in South
Bend. He found 11-month-old
Kenya Santiago on the bed
that Perez Santiago shared
with her partner, Aaron Ayala
Silva, 28. She was not breath-
ing and had no pulse.
Rescuers and emergency
room staff tried desperately to
bring her back, but Kenya had
been on a trajectory toward
death for about six weeks. By
the time anyone realized how
sick she was, blood was pool-
ing inside her skull, pressing
on her brain.
At Willapa Harbor Hospi-
tal, Dr. John Shaw spent 40
minutes trying to resuscitate
Kenya before he pronounced
her dead. He broke the news
to a room full of stunned fam-
ily members.
The truth about the final
weeks of Kenya’s life was evi-
dent to Dr. Clifford Nelson,
who performed her autopsy.
The little girl had 16 rib frac-
tures in different stages of
healing. The oldest fractures
were about six weeks old. Her
internal organs, body and face
were bruised. Her tiny ears
were torn. Ultimately, how-
ever, she died from two skull
fractures when someone vio-
lently shook her, hit her or
slammed her into something.
Child abuse expert Dr.
Joyce Gilbert reviewed Nel-
son’s report. On the stand on
Dec. 11, she said Kenya was
a victim of shaken baby syn-
drome or abusive head trauma.
Gilbert said the most com-
mon reason why parents abuse
infants is frustration with their
crying.
“Shaking makes babies
stop
crying,”
Gilbert
explained. “That unfortu-
nately becomes a reinforce-
ment for shaking.”
Nelson and Gilbert said
Kenya would have died
quickly after the fatal jolt or
blow. Perez Santiago’s son,
then 6, was in Mexico at the
time. If she and Ayala Silva
were the only people in the
home, Pacific County Pros-
ecutor Mark McClain rea-
soned, then they were the only
ones who could have killed
the baby. Perez Santiago and
Ayala Silva both insist they
never hurt their daughter, and
never saw anyone else abuse
their child. In July 2016,
Ayala Silva pleaded guilty to
homicide by abuse. The next
month, he was sentenced to
20 years in prison. However,
because there still were so
many unanswered questions
about Kenya’s death, McClain
decided to pursue charges
against Perez Santiago, too.
“I thought the commu-
nity should decide this case,”
McClain said.
Suspicion
Authorities took Perez
Santiago’s son away after
Kenya’s death. South Bend
Police arrested Ayala Silva
on suspicion of homicide by
abuse on Sept. 17. Meanwhile,
the grieving mother’s behav-
ior was the subject of intense
scrutiny. The EMT said the
couple didn’t seem to under-
stand how serious their baby’s
condition was. Others thought
it odd that when Dr. Shaw
informed the family of Ken-
ya’s death, an aunt and fre-
quent babysitter fled sobbing
from the emergency room,
but Perez Santiago stayed
put. A funeral home director
said she seemed too casual
for someone who was griev-
ing an infant; too eager to put
her daughter in the ground. A
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
Maria Perez Santiago was acquitted Dec. 13 of playing a
role in her daughter’s 2015 child-abuse-related death.
woman who had known her
for years was shocked to find
her painting a bedroom a few
days after losing both of her
children.
Prosecutor
McClain
believed that as stress from
their rocky relationship
mounted, Ayala Silva and
Perez Santiago took out their
frustrations on their baby.
“These parents were beat-
ing this baby to death,”
McClain said on Dec. 12.
Perez
Santiago
was
arrested at Ayala Silva’s sen-
tencing hearing. She pleaded
not guilty. She spent 17
months in Pacific County Jail
before her case went to trial.
Court documents say
Perez Santiago had no crimi-
nal history, and faithfully took
Kenya to her well-baby and
nutritional program check-
ups. The doctors always said
the little girl was healthy, and
developing normally.
“I just can’t see her hurting
that baby,” Raymond resident
Karl Gunderson said on Dec.
13. He met Perez Santiago
through a neighbor several
years ago. In happier times,
her son played with his grand-
son. He thought her a dedi-
cated and loving mother.
He is skeptical of McClain’s
theory partly because he saw
Perez Santiago capably par-
ent her son during a period of
immense grief and stress.
At the end of the trial,
Judge Goelz explained how
he saw the case.
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“I am absolutely certain
(Aaron Ayala Silva) is the
person who inflicted all the
pre-death injuries. No ques-
tion at all he was the person
who abused the child,” Goelz
said. But, despite the fact that
Ayala Silva refused to leave
their home when she asked,
he described Perez Santia-
go’s decision to let him stay
on after her baby’s death and
son’s removal as “appalling.”
He also pointed out incon-
sistencies in the statements
she made shortly after losing
both of her children, and the
ones she made in court.
Ultimately though, Goelz
said, he didn’t believe
McClain had proven Perez
Santiago abused, or know-
ingly allowed Ayala Silva
abuse her child.
For several long moments
after she was acquitted, Perez
Santiago could only sob and
gasp for air. Gunderson, the
old friend, rushed toward her,
and she collapsed into his arms
briefly. She found her voice as
a guard pulled them apart.
“I want to see my son,”
she said, over and over, as the
interpreter and guard held her
up.
Later that day, she was
released from jail, but she is
still not free. Immigration offi-
cers took her to the Northwest
Detention Center in Tacoma.
She will likely be deported.
C onsult
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