2-year-old in critical condition; parents in jail

Ellen Johnson’s daughter and the grandchildren she’d never met were planning to move into her Ohio home, in hopes of escaping an alleged abusive relationship.

On Wednesday, Johnson came to Marietta to find her 2-year-old granddaughter clinging to life and her daughter jailed on child cruelty charges along with her boyfriend.

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Amanda Swain

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Melvin Alexander Flores-Amador

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Amanda Swain, 25, and Melvin Alexander Flores-Amador, 25, are being held without bond. The toddler is at Scottish Rite Hospital where she underwent surgery for a lacerated liver, pancreas and brain trauma, according to the arrest warrant. She is in critical condition.

“I definitely didn’t want to see them like this,” said Johnson.

She now hopes to get custody of her 1-year-old grandson, now in the care of the state Department of Human Resources, Johnson said.

DHR confirmed that the younger child is in protective custody. Spokeswoman Dena Smith said the family has a history with the agency, but would not comment further.

Emergency personnel were called to Swain and Flores-Amador’s apartment at 2050 Austell Road Tuesday evening after the couple reported that their child had fallen out of the bed and was unresponsive. When police arrived the toddler was unconscious, Cobb police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said.

Swain had just arrived home with her friend Brenda Tatum when she discovered the toddler lying on the sofa, Tatum said. Tatum held the child’s motionless body in her arms as Swain tried to persuade her to drive her to the hospital.

“I told her that the child wasn’t going to make it in a car and she needed to call emergency services,” Tatum said in a tearful phone interview. “My nerves are shot. I held that baby in my hands. I couldn’t sleep at all last night.”

Tatum blames Flores-Amador. She said Swain was planning to leave him next month and move in with Johnson.

“We had already started working on getting her out of here,” Tatum said. “He was abusive to her and I kept telling her to leave. I just knew something awful was going to happen. I hate myself for this.”