Unlicensed day care provider sentenced for biting, abusing boy who suffered brain injury and had to be intubated

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (TCN) — A 26-year-old woman will spend over a decade in prison for abusing and causing severe injuries to a toddler in her unlicensed day care.

In a June 3 news release, the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office of Colorado said Mckinley Hernandez received an 18-year sentence followed by a mandatory three years of parole after a jury previously convicted her of one count of child abuse — recklessly causing serious bodily injury. The defendant was granted 242 days of presentence confinement credit.

On Sept. 1, 2023, Lakewood Police launched an investigation after Hernandez and her boyfriend brought a 2-year-old child to a hospital. The toddler required lifesaving surgery.

According to prosecutors, the victim sustained severe injuries, “including a traumatic brain injury with brain tissue damage, subdural hemorrhaging, reduced oxygen and blood flow to the brain, and retinal hemorrhaging leading to tissue displacement behind the eyes.” The boy reportedly had bruising all over his body consistent with non-accidental trauma.

According to the district attorney’s office, Hernandez ran an unlicensed home day care and had been caring for the victim regularly for over a year.

Officials obtained surveillance footage from Sept. 1, 2023, reportedly showing the victim “falling or being pushed from a camper trailer.” Hernandez allegedly carried him inside, and as she stepped in, she bit the toddler’s arm. Shortly after, between 7:30 p.m. and 7:44 p.m., prosecutors said the victim became unresponsive. The defendant didn’t leave for the hospital until 7:56 p.m.

At the defendant’s sentencing, the parents and grandparents of the victim, who is now 4, detailed how Hernandez’s actions caused a “lifetime of consequence.” The boy’s mother said her son spent 32 days in the hospital and had to be “intubated, sedated, placed on and off a ventilator, and fed through a tube.” The victim has had to “relearn basic functions such as breathing, eating, and walking, and continues to face challenges with gross motor skills.”

According to the district attorney’s office, the mother continued, “The possibility of playing sports, wrestling with his brothers, following in his father’s footsteps into the military — these are things that will never happen … not because he didn’t want them, but because someone made a choice to take them away.”

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