Trial begins for baby-sitter charged with murder

AMERICAN FORK — On Jan. 4, 2006, Brandon Zamora went to his baby-sitter's house a happy, healthy child.

"An hour and a half later, he had a fatal brain injury and passed away the next day," prosecutor Mariane O'Bryant told a 4th District jury, as she held up a picture of bright-eyed, 5-month-old.

"The evidence that we will present over the next five days will be that Daniella (Ruiz) was the only person who could have inflicted those injuries," O'Bryant said.

Daniella Ruiz, 26, and a mother of four, is charged with murder or in the alternative child abuse homicide, for allegedly causing Brandon's death while she was tending him.

Her weeklong jury trial began Friday with the testimony from Brandon's mother, Maria Zamora, who spoke of her happy son who liked to play. Brandon's father, Jose Osornio, told the jury that everyone commented on what a pretty baby Brandon was.

Maria Zamora testified that her son had been sick the month before, and had been on a 10-day prescription of Amoxicillin, but was much better when she took him to Ruiz's house on Jan. 4. A few hours later, Ruiz's husband noticed that Brandon didn't look well, and after Ruiz couldn't wake him, they called 911, O'Bryant told the jury.

Police dispatchers walked Ruiz through CPR until medical personnel arrived. Noting the child's severe condition, personnel scooped and rushed him to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.

"You'll find that (the attorneys) are not going to disagree on the facts of the case — what happened and when it happened," O'Bryant told the jury. "But what we will disagree on will be the interpretation of those facts, about what caused that brain injury, about why Brandon is deceased."

O'Bryant told the jury they could expect to hear testimony from the first doctor who believed meningitis would explain the quick change in behavior.

Yet doctors at Primary Children's Medical Center said the swelling of his brain was caused by inflicted trauma. Brandon died the next day.

An autopsy revealed bleeding of the brain, a depression in his skull, injuries to Brandon's kidneys and bleeding of his eyes — the type of bleeding that only occurs with severe trauma, like a car accident or falling from a two-story building, O'Bryant said.

Carter told the jury that his medical experts would present a different story, including the fact that there were no bruises or scars or marks on Brandon's body.