Father charged after 1-month-old infant suffered 21 broken bones, documents say

WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC4) — A man living in West Jordan has been charged after he allegedly caused injuries to his 1-month-old child that resulted in 21 broken bones.

Isaiah Regal Hernandez, 23, has been charged with 21 counts of aggravated child abuse — intentional or knowingly, a second-degree felony. Kaitelyn Vanessa Cruz, 24, is listed as a co-defendant, but official charges have not been filed yet.

In December 2024, a then 1-month-old infant was taken to the hospital and found to have multiple fractures. During several stays in the hospital, doctors found that the infant had fractures on sixteen of their ribs as well as fractures on bones in their foot, leg, and arm.

The hospital reported the injuries to the infant to the West Jordan Police Department, and an officer came to investigate how the 1-month-old had fractured approximately 21 bones. The infant’s father, Isaiah Regal Hernandez, interviewed with police following the hospital visits.

In the interview, Hernandez explained that he did exercises with the infant and demonstrated doing “bicycles” with a doll for the officer. “He holds both legs and moves them in a circular motion,” documents say. Hernandez said that he didn’t try “to do anything intentionally” when it came to harming his infant child.

The infant’s mother, Kaitelyn Vanessa Cruz, stated that Hernandez would do these “exercises” to help the infant when they were struggling to have a bowel movement. She allegedly explained to police that sometimes the infant became “agitated and squeamish” and seemed “uncomfortable” during the exercises.

Sometimes, the 1-month-old would cry a “different kind of cry” during the “bicycles,” but seemed to relax when they stopped, Cruz told police. “It’s different than just [the baby] being fussy” and is “more of a scream,” Cruz allegedly stated.

Cruz confessed to police that the exercises could have been a factor in the broken bones, and that Hernandez was “maybe a little too rough” with the infant.

A search of Cruz’s phone revealed that on December 21, the same day that the infant was taken to the hospital, Cruz had conducted several concerning Google searches about the condition of her 1-month-old baby. She searched terms like “baby has a bit of blood in [their] mouth,” “baby bloody noses,” and “paleness in babies.”

On December 25, Cruz searched terms including “crackling popping noises in my [baby’s] back” and “crackling noise when my baby breathes.” On January 4, she searched for “why [does] my baby have fractured ribs,” “how to get rid of bump on baby head,” and “my baby throwing up spit.”

Screenshots of a text conversation between Cruz and Hernandez were also located, according to documents. On January 4, Cruz wrote a message to Hernandez saying, “I don’t want them to take [the baby] away if we don’t cooperate and tell them how it might’ve possibly happened.”

“It’s not like you did it with an intent to hurt [the baby] at all, so I feel like we should, but I’m going to wait for you,” Cruz wrote in another message on that day.

“Okay, baby, if you think that’s what we should do, we cooperate,” Hernandez wrote before quickly following up with another message. “Oh no, my grandma said not to … she said to record our conversations.”

“I [don’t] want to say anything, I want you to tell them and maybe demonstrate it, but it was only to help [the baby] when [they were constipated],” Cruz allegedly wrote back.

Doctors with the Center for Safe and Healthy Families — which provides medical services for possible victims of abuse and neglect — told police that the injuries sustained by the 1-month-old “should be considered significantly concerning” and that “the child is at an increased risk of further injury or death if returned to an unchanged caregiving environment.”

A warrant has been filed for Hernandez’s arrest, no formal charges have been filed against Cruz at this time.