College Station babysitter receives 40 years in prison for shaking, throwing infant
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – A College Station woman was sentenced to 40 years in prison for severely injuring an infant in 2022.
On Thursday, Berta Lopez-Vasquez pleaded guilty to injury to a child causing serious bodily injury. Police reports say Lopez-Vasquez shook and threw a baby, less than a year old, against a wall when the child would not stop crying.
A statement from the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office says the 5-month-old child sustained multiple skull fractures, bruises all over his body, retinal hemorrhaging consistent with shaking, and severe brain bleeding.
The mother of the child told police she had left the child in Lopez-Vasquez’s care while she went to work. Several hours later, the babysitter called her to come pick up the child because he was not breathing normally. Police say the babysitter refused to take the child to the hospital or call an ambulance.
Lopez-Vasquez told officers she didn’t call anyone other than her husband after injuring the child, and he convinced her to call the child’s mother.
The child, now almost 3, continues to have issues related to the abuse, according to the mother’s victim impact statement.
The College Station Police Department, the Department of Family and Protective Services, and Tiffany Graves with the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office investigated this case.
