An Albuquerque mother has been accused of beating her 1-year-old daughter, leaving her with multiple bruises and a skull fracture and ultimately leading to her death.
Tabitha Molina, 32, has been charged with intentional child abuse resulting in death and an open count of child abuse after doctors found significant injuries they said could not have been from falls or other accidents, according to records filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court last week.
Molina, who was the subject of numerous previous child maltreatment investigations by the state involving both her late daughter and other children, is currently being held in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center.
Molina hurt her daughter “to the point she suffered severe injury and lost consciousness,” prosecutors wrote in a motion seeking pretrial detention. “This is dangerous behavior that shows no concern for the health and safety of the child.”
“We believe Tabitha Molina to be a danger to the community,” Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Nancy Laflin added in an email.
Court records do not list an attorney for Molina.
The girl was not identified by police in court records. However, Albuquerque police spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos identified her in an email as Anastacia Salazar.
State Children, Youth and Families Department spokesperson Jake Thompson wrote in an email the agency had received eight total child abuse reports against Molina since 2019, two of which stemmed from the incident that left Anastacia dead. CYFD’s three most recent investigations into Molina involved Anastacia, he wrote.
The agency did not substantiate allegations of abuse against Anastacia in its investigations in June and July of last year. In separate probes involving other children, CYFD also did not substantiate allegations of a lack of supervision in August 2019 and accusations of neglect in October and December 2021, Thompson wrote.
In February 2020, the agency did substantiate allegations of neglect because of a failure by Molina to provide adequate shelter, again involving other children, he added.
“Throughout CYFD’s involvement with Ms. Molina and her other children, the family was receiving early intervention services for the children, and the mother was in counseling services,” Thompson wrote.
He noted other children living in the household had not been placed in CYFD custody but were living with family members.
Albuquerque police were called to the University of New Mexico Hospital on the evening of May 22, where Anastacia had been transported in critical condition after originally being taken to Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, according to a criminal complaint.
She was not expected to survive her injuries and was eventually placed on life support, the complaint states. Molina and Anastacia’s father agreed to take her off life support a week after she was first taken to the hospital.
The girl had visible bruises on her head and scarring on her neck, which raised concerns for medical staff, the complaint states.
Molina told police her daughter was “accident prone” and “wobbly,” leading her to fall often, the complaint alleges. She told police she believed Anastacia could have gotten the bruises from falling, sleeping on hard toys or because of a vitamin deficiency.
Molina said she was not sure how Anastacia received her critical injuries, but believed the girl had fallen and hit her head against a piece of furniture, the document states.
When asked if she ever physically disciplined her daughter, she told police, “I don’t like hitting.”
Days later, a child abuse pediatrician found the girl was likely battered, writing in a report that “no plausible mechanisms of life threatening head injury or extensive skin injury have been provided” to explain the girl’s wounds, according to the complaint.
Anastacia was “not developmentally capable of self-inflicting such extensive injuries,” doctors wrote in their report.
