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Corona mom arrested on charges of beating baby

By Jeremy Walsh

Kiama Paez, 23, was arrested Friday afternoon after her child, Pablo Fernandez arrived at Elmhurst Hospital with major injuries.She was arraigned Saturday in Queens Criminal Court on charges of attempted murder. If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison, the DA said.Paez told police that on Feb. 22, while changing Pablo's diaper in their Xenia Street apartment, she picked the baby up and threw him onto her bed from two or three feet away, according to a criminal complaint filed by the DA's office.Then on April 3, Paez smacked her son on the left side of the head to make him stop crying, the complaint said. She then strapped Pablo into a car seat and left him alone before noticing that the child was having trouble breathing, the complaint said.When Paez tried to pick up the car seat, it fell face-down on the floor with the child still strapped in, the complaint said.Pablo began to cry and then was silent, the complaint said.Paez then took her son to the hospital, where emergency room doctors discovered he had a fractured skull, head trauma, bleeding on the brain, fractured ribs, a cut lip, an old fracture to his left femur and a previous subdural hematoma, the complaint said.The child is brain dead and likely to die, doctors told police. He remained on life support in very critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital by press time Tuesday, hospital staff said.”The grave physical injuries that this helpless and defenseless infant was made to suffer in just the first few weeks of his life is beyond comprehension,” Brown said, noting the charges will be upgraded if the child dies.Paez also had a child removed from her care by the Administration for Children's Services about a year ago, a police source said. That child has already been placed in a foster home, the source said.The investigation of Paez's alleged abuse of Pablo was conducted by the NYPD's 110th Precinct detective squad.Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.