PROVO, Utah, Feb. 24, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A Utah County man is being held without bail after police say he stabbed a bed containing a woman and her toddler daughter, and cut the 23-month-old girl with the blade of his pocketknife.
Family members drove the mother and child to an emergency room for treatment of the wound to the baby’s foot, which required several stitches to close.
Miguel Francisco Rodriguez-Vega, 34, is being held on suspicion of:
- Child abuse — inflict serious physical injury recklessly, a third-degree felony
- Six counts of commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child, a class B misdemeanor
- Criminal mischief domestic violence, a class B misdemeanor
- Intoxication, a class C misdemeanor
A detective from the Provo Police Department arrived at the Provo scene shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday.
“It was reported that a male had stabbed a bed and a child in the bed was injured,” the probable cause statement says. “The child and mother were driving to the Provo emergency room. Patrol officers responded to the home and were able to detain the male. The male was later identified as Miguel Rodriguez.”
The toddler’s mother was interviewed at Provo Hospital, the statement says.
“(She) told me that she and her children had gone to sleep,” the statement says. “Miguel was still awake and had been drinking. Around 0300 (3 a.m.) Miguel had begun to yell and scream. The yelling had awoken a 23-month-old daughter that was sleeping with (the mother).”
The statement says Rodriguez began screaming at the woman “that she did not know how to care for the daughter.” The woman yelled back telling Rodriguez to leave the room.
“As Miguel was leaving, he turned back to bed and asked, ‘Who’s that in the bed?'” the statement says.
The woman told police that she was on the north side of the bed, the baby was beside her, in the middle, and on the south side of the bed was a pile of pillows with blankets on top.
“Miguel then came back into the room pulled a pocketknife from his pocket opened it and stabbed it down into the bed. (The mother) told me that her daughter was crying throughout this incident. When Miguel stabbed into the bed her daughter cried out and began to cry more. (The mother) pulled her daughter closer to her and saw her foot bleeding.”
The mother then asked her son-in-law to take her to the hospital, where the baby girl received treatment and stitches for her foot wound.
“When interviewed, Miguel never admitted to having a knife or to stabbing the bed,” the probable cause statement says. “He did, however, begin crying when told he was being charged by his recklessness he began to sob.”
“He never denied stabbing the bed or that he had hurt” the baby, the statement says.
Miguel also told detectives that he had begun drinking alcohol the day before at about 8 p.m.
Police searched the residence with the woman’s consent and found cuts through one blanket and blood on one blanket.
At the time of the altercation, six other underage children were in the residence, the probable cause statement notes.
Gephardt Daily will share more information on this case as details emerge.
