Parents Accused Of Beating And Starving Son Appear In Court
HOMESTEAD (CBSMiami) – A Homestead mother and father are being held without bond on charges of kidnapping and child abuse.
Christina Irizzary and Lorenzo Mato are accused of locking their son in a room without food or water and giving him additional doses of medication as punishment.
Both are facing charges of aggravated child abuse, child abuse, child neglect and kidnapping.
"We constantly heard her hitting him, hitting him, hitting him," one neighbor said. "From my wall, I've always heard constant yelling from her beating that child."
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That same neighbor, who did not wish to be identified said police and Department of Children and Families workers have responded to the apartment before.
Another woman, who also didn't want to give her name but said she is a family friend who occasionally cares for the boy, described the conditions he lived in.
"She wouldn't give him food in the room. They didn't bathe him. In my house, he didn't want to bathe because he said in his house they only bathed once a week," the family friend said.
She said the boy is 11 years old and is currently staying with an aunt.
"He told me his mom broke his arm," the woman said.
The police report stated the boy would climb out his window to sneak over to a neighbor's house for food and water.
According to this arrest affidavit, the child, referred to as "L.M." "snuck out of his residence and responded to (a neighbor's) apartment and said 'help me! I'm hungry and thirsty and my mom put the machine in my mouth and made me bleed."
The report says he was talking about hair clippers.
He also said his mother would force him to take extra doses of medication and his room smelled of urine.
The affidavit goes on to say the child "told (the neighbor) he would have to lie or his parents were going to kill him".
"You don't discipline a child by locking him in their room or doing anything like that. I have 5 kids myself. You don't do that," one neighbor said.
DCF said it has a prior history with the family. It said it opened a case July 15 and it was closed August 18.
The police report said a therapist once witnessed the boy escaping the home through a window after the mother cut a session short, claiming the child was sleeping and she had a doctor's appointment.
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