Crime & Safety

Woman Gets 25 Years in Prison for Child Abuse

Maria E. Rangel was babysitting when she hurt a baby who was crying.

A 28-year-old woman will spend 25 years in prison after she hurt an infant so badly via Flight for Life.

Maria E. Rangel, of Waukesha, was ordered Wednesday to be on eight years of supervision after she serves her initial prison sentence on the felony child abuse conviction in

According to the criminal complaint:

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Police were called to a house in the 300 block of Darlene Drive on June 2 after it was reported there was an infant with no pulse and not breathing. The child was transported to the hospital where medical personnel discovered numerous injuries within the infant, including two skull fractures, swelling on the brain and a mid-right side tibia fracture.

Rangel initially denied causing injury to the infant, saying she discovered the baby wasn’t breathing when she went to feed the boy. Rangel told police she called the baby’s mother who came over and began to shake him to wake him up.

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Rangel later told investigators the infant’s head accidentally hit the door of the refrigerator while she was holding him and she then lost grip of the infant who fell on the floor.

She eventually admitted to squeezing and shaking the baby because the infant continued to cry.


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