The mother of a 3-year-old girl who claimed that her daughter was hit by a car, has been charged with first degree murder.
Yeliani Schwartz Ojeda, 3, died at the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital, last Saturday. The girl’s mother, Maryann Schwartz, 22, had called 911 to report that the child had been struck by a car in the Grandview Point Apartments parking lot.
Maryann Schwartz, 22, was taken into custody and initially charged with child abuse on Tuesday.
Subsequently, the medical examiner ruled the girl’s injuries were not consistent with being hit by a vehicle that little Yeliani died from blunt force trauma and her death was ruled a homicide. It was also determined that the child was malnourished and had bruising, suggesting prior abuse.
On Wednesday, Schwartz was also charged with killing her daughter. She was booked into the Orange County Jail without bond.
