Mom arrested in child abuse case

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - There are new developments into a child abuse case from over the weekend. Police already arrested the father of the abused 10-month-old girl. Now, they have arrested the girl's mother.

Terre Haute Police detectives arrested Dawn Gutierrez, 20, late Wednesday afternoon on three counts of child neglect. She said she's sorry.

"For not getting away from him," Dawn Gutierrez said, referring to her husband, Fernando.

Fernando Gutierrez-Cabrera, 20, was arrested over the weekend on harsher charges. They include: battery resulting in serious bodily injury, child neglect resulting in serious bodily injury, child neglect resulting in bodily injury, child neglect, and domestic battery.

Police say Fernando broke multiple bones in his 10-month-old daughter's body. He's also accused of taking a hot box of rice and putting it on the little girl's legs, burning them.

As Fernando left the courtroom Wednesday, he claimed he didn't understand our questions.

"I can speak barely any English. I can't understand," Fernando Gutierrez-Cabrera said.

Family members of the little girl say they are disgusted by all of this.

"There's no way I can explain how I hate this individual," Randy Day, the victim's great-uncle, said.

Randy says the family has seen Dawn about two times in the past year and never knew anything this violent was going on.

"She can't even crawl yet, and reason being is probably because of her broken bones and stuff," Day said.

"I love my family and my daughter. I wish nothing ever happened," Dawn said as officers put her in the back of the police car.

Fernando will be back in court on Friday with a Spanish translator. It's not known when Dawn will be in court.