Man charged for allegedly killing girlfriend's baby


Story Published: Jan 5, 2010 at 4:57 PM MST

Story Updated: Jan 5, 2010 at 10:58 PM MST
By Jennifer McGraw

IDAHO FALLS - A six-month old baby is dead and a man is sitting in jail accused of shaking her to death.

Mauricio Cando-Franco is in this country illegally. Now he is facing additional murder charges for allegedly shaking six-month old Ziola cook to death.

"It's hard to see your baby like that not being able to move. Praying that they would take a breath. It's the worst thing you could ever do," says Michelle Cook, baby's mother.

Michelle spent the last two days watching her six-month-old baby girl, lifeless, hooked to machines, realizing the worst has happened.

"I got to hold her while they unplugged the breathing machine," she says.

Ziola was rushed to EIRMC Saturday after her grandmother stopped in to find her unresponsive and limp. Ziola's injuries were so severe she was air-lifted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City.

"I asked her, 'What's wrong with my grandbaby?' and she said, 'I don't know.' I said, "Something's wrong with her, what's wrong with her?' she said, 'I don't know," says Cola Hudson, the baby's grandmother.

Ziola took her last breath at 11p.m. Sunday night, but doctors say she had already past before she ever arrived in Salt Lake City, telling Michelle her baby was shaken to death.

24-year-old Mauricio Cando-Franco is Michelle's former boyfriend, and main suspect. He was home alone with the baby while Michelle was at work, telling police he didn't hurt the baby.

But police have determined all signs point toward Mauricio as the killer.

"After everything I've been through, I feel no regrets to him, where he's at. I hope he gets what he deserves. That he has to live with the fact that he killed an innocent child," says Michelle.

A mother's anguish as she grieves the loss of a child.

"She had asked me where her sister Ziola was, I don't know how I'm going to tell her," she says.

Mauricio Cando-Franco is being charged with felony injury to a child and murder in the first degree. His bail is set at $250,000.

http://www.kidk.com/news/local/80749127.html