Trial in 2006 death of infant is delayed again

AMERICAN FORK — It's been 2 1/2 years and there are still no answers as to why little Brandon Zamora died.

Prosecutors have an idea, and have been waiting to take Daniella Ruiz, 26, to trial on first-degree murder, arguing that while she was baby-sitting the 5-month-old child in Provo, she abused the child so severely that he later died at the hospital.

But defense attorney, Shelden Carter, asked for a jury trial continuance Friday in 4th District Court, stating his expert witnesses, doctors, are not available in July, when the seven-day trial was scheduled.

It's the fourth time the trial has been extended, and prosecutors' patience is growing a bit thin.

"We're not really in a position to object," said prosecutor Chad Grunander. "We want to have a good record, because if there is a conviction we don't want to do this in three or four years again ... (because she argues) she wasn't given rights to a proper defense."

However, he said he's concerned that it has taken so long to get closure for the Zamora family.

"We're feeling so bad, because we passed two years and a half already, waiting for what's going on," Jose Zamora told Judge David Mortensen. "We don't know what happened that day, and we want to know. We feel so bad, we are trying to understand."

Ruiz had been baby-sitting Brandon on Jan. 4, 2006, and called 911 to report that he wasn't breathing. She was coached through CPR by dispatch until emergency personnel arrived. The baby was taken to Utah Valley Regional Hospital, then Primary Children's, where he later died.

A medical examiner testified at a preliminary hearing that the baby had a swollen and bleeding brain, internal bruising and hemorrhaging but no external bruises or injuries.

Jose Zamora's wife, Marena, spoke in Spanish as Jose translated for the judge. She said she thinks of her baby every day.

"This isn't right," she said in Spanish. "This isn't right."

Mortensen agreed to the continuance but said that once the attorneys consulted with their doctors and a new date was scheduled, nothing would change it.