IBARRA

Man jailed for injury to infant, 4 months

A 4-month-old child is in extremely critical condition at a Dallas hospital after officials say she was punched multiple times by her father and thrown across a room.

The Smith County Sheriff’s Office arrested 19-year-old Andres Ibarra, the child’s father, on a charge of injury to a child, a first-degree felony, after he confessed twice to striking the child with a closed fist four or five times and throwing her one time.

Ibarra also admitted to abusing the child over the past month, with Sunday night’s abuse being the most recent incident, according to the news release.

The Sheriff’s Office was alerted to the case Monday when the Tyler Police Department contacted them in reference to an unresponsive child at a local hospital.

Sheriff’s Office detectives and the Crime Scene Unit responded to the hospital.

During the investigation, law enforcement learned the child had suffered severe injuries and child abuse was suspected.

During an interview at the hospital, Ibarra admitted to striking and throwing the child. During further questioning at the Sheriff’s Office, Ibarra again confessed.

He told law enforcement that after he struck and threw the child on Sunday night, he went outside, smoked marijuana, then went to sleep. When he woke up Monday morning, he left the residence with his girlfriend and the child.

He said they noticed the child was pale and not breathing normally so they took her to the hospital, according to the news release.

Sheriff’s detectives were at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas following up to determine the extent of the child’s injuries. Detectives also were interviewing the child’s mother.

Ibarra was booked into the Smith County Jail on Monday and his bond was set at $500,000. An immigration detainer also was placed on him.

— Staff Reports

New connecting road now open in Tyler

Barricades have been removed from a new road connecting Hollytree Drive with Cumberland Road.

Members of the public are now driving on the new road, called Maple Lane, which runs south from Hollytree Drive and connects with Cumberland Road.

Karl Seydler, who does engineering plan review for the city, said the city would finish the paperwork to accept the road into the city inventory at the end of this week or next week.

Private developers built the road as part of a plan by Genecov West Mud Creek LLC and Roosth Properties LLC to build a mixed-use development on approximately 430 acres of land south of Hollytree that has been vacant for years.

Road construction finished about two months ago, but the city had not accepted the road yet because the developers had not finished building sewer infrastructure, Seydler said at the time.

Hollytree is an subdivision in Tyler that shares its name with the nearby Hollytree Country Club.

It sits south of West Grande Boulevard, west of South Broadway Avenue and north of Faulkner Park.

— Erin Mansfield