HOUSTON — A mother and father appeared in court Monday morning, six months after their twin infants were found dead in their southeast Houston home.
Editor's note: Some of the details of this story are graphic and may be disturbing to readers.
Angelina Belinda Calderon, 21, and Fernando Vega, 21, both face two counts of injury to a child-serious bodily injury, according to the Houston Police Department. They were arrested on Friday.
During an appearance in probable cause court over the weekend, Calderon was forced to leave the courtroom after a profanity-laced outburst.
“Stop shushing me! I don’t care. I don’t care. You’re making me look like a bad person. I don’t ***** care. I was at work when they **** died. He **** killed my babies,” she said.
Calderon’s attorney didn’t comment after court on Monday.
According to court documents, Vega told police he left the children in his grandmother's care the morning of Oct. 4, 2023, to take Calderon to work at around 10:30 a.m. When he returned home, he found the children unresponsive and called Calderon, saying, "They are not waking up. They're not doing nothing," before calling 911. Charging documents show the 911 call was made at 11:08 a.m. Vega told officers that he and another family member attempted CPR while waiting for help to arrive.
The twins were pronounced dead at the scene at 11:22 a.m.
Vega told investigators that he was the last one to see the kids alive around 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., according to charging documents.
Initially, police said there were no visible signs of trauma. On Saturday, April 20, HPD said an autopsy determined that the infants suffered blunt force trauma.
Court documents detail some of the autopsy's findings, including that X-rays found multiple fractures, including to the left femur, ribs and clavicle of one of the infants. The doctors who performed the autopsy noted that the injuries appeared to be a mix of new and old, some possibly being weeks old. The rib fractures "were not consistent with chest compressions from CPR," the court documents read. The other child had similar injuries, as well as a frontal head fracture. Both infants were found to be malnourished and dehydrated.
The court documents say the doctors determined that the injuries were likely to have come from three separate incidents.
The cause of death was determined to be multiple blunt force injuries, according to the charging documents. Both children had suffered brain injuries.
Medical examiners also found both babies were malnourished and dehydrated.
Vegas’ attorney said he’s scared about the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
Both parents are now being held on a $1.5 million bond.
Defense attorneys asked for that bond amount to be lowered, so separate hearings were set for each suspect.