Father gets year in jail for hurting baby son

SALT LAKE CITY — A man who injured his 13-month-old son was sentenced to a year in jail Monday.

After serving 36 months of probation, the man will be deported to Mexico.

Humberto Enrique Alvarez, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of inflicting serious physical injury on a child intentionally, both third-degree felonies.

As part of a plea bargain, the two charges were amended from second-degree felonies. Three other charges were dismissed as part of the plea: one count of inflicting serious physical injury on a child intentionally, a second-degree felony; and two counts of child abuse involving physical injury, both class A misdemeanors.

Third District Judge Robert Faust imposed two prison terms of zero to five years each on the counts that Alvarez pleaded guilty to, but the judge suspended the prison time.

Court documents say Alvarez's mother and brother returned early from a vacation after having left the little boy and his sister, who was 23 months old, with Alvarez at the West Valley City family home at 6140 W. Powderwood Drive.

Alvarez had the children Oct. 22-30, 2009.

The mother and brother found the boy "lifeless and unresponsive at the bottom of the stairs."

The child had an impact injury on his scalp, broken bones in his left leg that were healing, multiple bruises on the thigh, buttocks and back, abrasions on both sides of his mouth and an abrasion of the cornea in one eye, according to court documents.

A doctor at Primary Children's Medical Center concluded that the injuries around the mouth were consistent with tape having been put over the child's mouth, which the doctor said was a "life threatening act" for a child of that age and that developmental level.

Alvarez told police he had hit the boy on the buttocks with a sandal, but later Alvarez "offered conflicting stories attempting to explain the injuries."

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