Illegal Mom Who Killed Her Son Sentenced to 26 Years in Prison

Maribel Gomez, an illegal immigrant, was convicted of homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in the brutal killing of her 2-year-old son Rafael. Little "Raffy" died September 10, 2003, a day after his mother took him to a hospital and told hospital workers that he had fallen backward during a tantrum while he was eating. But an autopsy revealed that the toddler had been killed by blunt trauma force to the head that could not have happened from a fall. The autopsy also showed that at some time in the past the boy had suffered two broken legs, as many as four skull fractures, burns and other injuries, and his arms had been pulled from his shoulder sockets within weeks of his death.

When Raffy was born August 7, 2001, with cocaine and methamphetamines in his system, he was taken away from his mother and placed with foster parents Bruce and Denise Griffith. When he was 10 months old, he was returned to his birth parents, but not for long. State child welfare workers placed Raffy with the Griffiths three more times, but each time they returned him to Gomez once his injuries had healed up. In his entire short life, Raffy spent only 11 months with his birth mother—11 months enduring endless cruelty and horrific injuries at the hands of his mother.

After Raffy’s death, the state Department of Social and Health Services conducted a fatality review that determined social workers had been biased in favor of the birth parents, and completely ignored the blatant signs that Rafael was being abused by his mother. During the trial, foster parent Griffith testified that Raffy "was a wonderful little boy when he was with us, and never did any of those things [his mother] described."

Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz heard the trial from the bench after Gomez, 32, waived her right to a trial by jury. Prosecutor John Knodell said that the case was difficult to prosecute because of the horrific injuries Raffy suffered during the last weeks of his life. Both sides attempted to convince the judge to accept their version of the events leading up to Raffy’s death. Witnesses for the prosecution detailed the autopsy reports and the physical evidence that clearly pointed to the fact that Raffy’s mother had been repeatedly abusing her son every time he was in her care.

The star witness for the defense was Janice Ophoven, a forensic pathologist who wasn’t even involved in the autopsy yet testified that the autopsy findings were incorrect and Raffy had actually died by choking on his own vomit. But Antosz agreed with the prosecution that Gomez was the only witness to Raffy’s injuries and that she was responsible for his death.

Gomez was sentenced Monday to nearly 27 years in prison for killing her little boy. Antosz read from 14 pages of notes, speaking for about an hour before passing sentence. He said that after a pattern of assaulting her son, Gomez recklessly and with extreme indifference to human life caused her son’s death. Gomez has four other children, all of whom have been placed in foster care.

After her prison term ends, Gomez will face deportation. So American taxpayers will house, clothe, feed, and take care of an illegal immigrant child killer for nearly 27 years before sending her packing.