After posting $750,000 bail Monday, Maria Martinez-Aguilar and her father stopped at a local McDonald’s to pick up food, according to Assistant Prosecutor Margaret Moscati.
However, the quick road stop tracked by the GPS device violated the terms of Martinez-Aguilar’s release, Moscati claimed during a state Supreme Court hearing Thursday afternoon. She had been released to house arrest, GPS tracking and intensive probation. Under the terms of house arrest, a person is not allowed to be anywhere else, even on the way home from court, with a few exceptions for church services, lawyer visits, doctor visits, etc.
Prosecutors asked for the motion to address Martinez-Aguilar’s alleged injury. At the hearing, Moscati asked Judge Gary White to increase bail for the 25-year-old Greenwich resident.
Moscati argued that the alleged violation “shows disregard for court orders.”
“She was on GPS for barely an hour before violating her terms of release,” Moscati said.
Attorney Nicolle Lipkin, representing the child’s family, also agreed that Martinez-Aguilar’s bail should be increased because her alleged actions could have caused permanent harm to the child, including blindness and paralysis.
“This is a total disregard for the rules set out by the court,” Lipkin said during the hearing.
Attorney Lindy Urso, representing Martinez-Aguilar, said his client was not driving the car, her father was. He said she should not be punished for an oversight on her father’s behalf.
“I just don’t think it was an injury on their part,” said Urso.
Ultimately, White did not increase ties with Martinez-Aguilar, despite warning her against future transgressions.
“This is strike one. If you come back here in a similar situation, I will increase your loyalty,” White said.
Martinez-Aguilar was arrested on Monday for first-degree assault, willful cruelty and harming a child, and felony charges; and interference with police investigations.
According to the warrant application, medical authorities reported the child’s injury to police in October 2022.
The baby had suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding and was flown from the Greenwich Hospital grounds to the specialized pediatric intensive care unit at Yale-New Haven. The baby survived his injuries.
Greenwich Police launched an investigation that led to the felony charges against Martinez-Aguilar. The warrant application said that Martinez-Aguilar allegedly shook the baby and dropped it.
Martinez-Aguilar has worked for the family since August 2022 and was described as “very loving” by the family, according to the affidavit.
On October 10, 2022, the parents weren’t home when they received a call from Martinez-Aguilar that the baby was exhibiting “strange behavior.” They rushed home and took the baby to the hospital.
Doctors told police the injuries were “consistent with abusive head trauma,” court records said. Police checked a video camera in the baby’s bedroom and at one point heard a “loud bang”, the source of which was not visible to the camera.
Police questioned Martinez-Aguilar in January and pointed out a number of inconsistencies in their account of the cause of the noise. Finally, she told investigators she shook the baby, the affidavit states, and “then threw him up and tried to catch him, but he slipped, fell straight and landed on the hardwood floor.”
In a statement following Thursday’s hearing, Lipkin thanked Greenwich Police for their investigation into the alleged abuse.
“What happened to the victim was a terrible tragedy. We greatly appreciate all of the hard work and efforts of the Greenwich Police Department in this investigation and arrest,” Lipkin said.
Martinez-Aguilar is next scheduled to appear in court on May 1.
