Man, wife arrested in Magna child-abuse probe

A child abuse investigation in Magna has led to the arrest of a couple wanted in Las Vegas for child abuse homicide and the discovery of what appears to be a disturbing pattern of violence involving three children.

The incident began for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Saturday night when an infant was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center with numerous broken bones. Three days earlier, the mother noticed her 5-week-old girl was fussy and had swelling on her arms and legs, said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Paul Jaroscak. The girl's father apparently didn't believe the girl needed to go to the doctor, he said.

When the mother finally took the girl to the hospital, doctors discovered the infant had numerous broken bones "in different stages of healing beginning from around the time of her birth," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.

"(The girl's) left and right arm are broken, her left leg is broken both below the knee and above the knee. Her right leg is broken both above the knee and below the knee. She has several broken ribs and her clavicle (collarbone) has been broken three different times," the report stated.

The mother told detectives her boyfriend, the father of her children, watched them during the day while she worked. The couple moved to Utah earlier this year from Las Vegas and were living with relatives in Magna.

After officers interviewed Thomas Ryan Williams, 21, he was arrested and booked into jail for investigation of 10 counts of second-degree felony child abuse, Jaroscak said.

Upon further investigation, detectives learned the couple had another 1-year-old child. An examination of that child revealed the toddler also had at least one broken bone that was in the healing stage, Jaroscak said.

In yet another turn, investigators learned through interviews over the weekend that the couple had a 2-month-old boy who died about a year-and-a-half ago while the couple was living in Las Vegas, Jaroscak said.

Police there reportedly investigated the cause of death as shaken baby syndrome, but no one was ever prosecuted because detectives reportedly could not determine a suspect, according to what family members told detectives. They claimed that at the time the family lived with a nanny, an undocumented immigrant, who disappeared after the baby's death.

Detectives interviewing Williams over the weekend said he admitted to "roughly handling a son who is now deceased from shaken-baby syndrome," according to the jail report.

But when Salt Lake County sheriff's investigators contacted Las Vegas authorities Monday morning, they learned that arrest warrants had actually been issued for Williams and the mother of their children, 21-year-old Lupe Perez, Jaroscak said. Williams has a warrant out for murder by child abuse and Perez for homicide and second-degree felony child neglect.

Upon learning this new information, detectives called Perez Monday afternoon and asked her to come down to the sheriff's office for another interview. When she arrived, she was arrested on the warrant.

The couple's 1-year-old child was expected to be taken into protective custody Monday evening.

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