EDINBURG -- A nearly half-ton woman charged with capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old nephew faces additional charges following a grand jury indictment Thursday.
Investigators suspect Mayra Lizbeth Rosales, 27, hit Eliseo Gonzalez Jr. at least two times on March 18, crushing the child's head. The bedridden woman told investigators at the time that she accidentally crushed Eliseo under her own weight while trying to pick him up.
In addition to the capital murder charge - which carries a death sentence upon conviction - she was indicted on one count of first-degree murder, a charge punishable by up to 99 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Rosales also was indicted on one count of injury to a child, a first-degree felony.
Prosecutors said the grand jury handed down the new charges after a full autopsy confirmed investigators' suspicions that the child died because she struck him.
The formal indictments Thursday, however, revived problematic questions of how authorities will detain and prosecute a woman who is estimated to weigh close to 1,000 pounds and is unable to fit through a door to leave her home. As of Thursday evening, Rosales was not in custody.
















