Christian Vasquez was scheduled to stand trial this week, more than eight years after allegedly killing his 2-year-old daughter, hiding her body in the attic of his Gwinnett home and fleeing to Mexico.
Proceedings, however, have been postponed — thanks to the arrest of his wife.
Amy Yesenia Ruiz, 32, was arrested Monday and charged with felony murder in connection with the 2007 death of her and Vasquez's 2-year-old daughter, Prisi. Ruiz has previously been arrested — and released — on child cruelty charges in the case but had never been charged with murder.
The Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office issued the new warrants last week.
“Ruiz had her charges upgraded based on conflicting statements given by her which implicated her more than previously thought,” District Attorney Danny Porter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
No further information was provided, but the warrant charges Ruiz with felony murder based on her alleged “failure to seek medical aid” for her daughter.
She is being held at the Gwinnett County jail without bond.
Authorities believe Vasquez, whose trial has now been postponed, killed the couple’s daughter with a blow to the head sometime in early 2007. According to police, Vasquez then hid the girl’s body in the attic of the family’s rental home near Lawrenceville and fled to Mexico with Ruiz and her child from a previous marriage.
In June 2008, a relative of Ruiz reportedly tipped off police, who searched the Stillwater Drive home and found Prisi Vasquez’s body wrapped in plastic.
Ruiz was arrested in 2009 while crossing the Mexican border into Texas and spent a month in the Gwinnett County jail before posting bond on a single count of cruelty to children. Her booking sheet from this week’s arrest suggests she’d been living in the north Georgia city of Clayton since.
Vasquez remained on the lam until July 2012, when Mexican law enforcement arrested him in the town of Puebla. He was extradited and booked into the Gwinnett County jail in early 2013.
Vasquez was scheduled to stand trial this week on charges including murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and first-degree cruelty to children.
Porter, the district attorney, said it’s likely his office will now try Ruiz before Vasquez faces a trial. Ruiz is scheduled for a June 11 preliminary hearing.
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