1,000 pound woman indicted on new charges

UPDATE FROM CNN

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) -- A nearly half-ton Texas woman charged in the death of her toddler nephew couldn't have beaten the boy to death because of her limited movement from weight problems, her attorney said Tuesday.

Mayra Rosales, who weighs nearly 1,000 pounds, was indicted last week on capital murder charges in the death of Eliseo Gonzalez Jr. Prosecutors said the 2-year-old boy died after being struck at least twice in the head while in the care of Rosales, who is bedridden.

Jamie Rosales, the boy's 20-year-old mother, believes the death was possibly caused by the morbidly obese woman rolling onto the toddler, said Oscar Vega, her attorney. She faces one felony count of injury to a child, which carries a life sentence and 10,000 in fines.

"She doesn't believe her sister intentionally did anything to her child," Vega told The Associated Press.

A state district judge put Mayra Rosales, 27, under house arrest Monday because the county jail lacks a large enough cell or necessary medical resources. She is required to wear a global-positioning tracker until her trial.

Sergio Valdez, Mayra Rosales' attorney, said she lacks the movement in her arms to have killed the child, calling it an "impossibility."

"She is not physically capable of having committed those acts," Valdez said.

Valdez said Rosales suffers from a thyroid problem that has caused her to put on hundreds of pounds over the past three to four years and has been bedridden for more than a year.

The stress of the arrest and charges has exacerbated the poor health of Mayra Rosales, who also suffers from a "life-threatening" ailment he would not disclose, Valdez said.

"This whole ordeal has taken a very negative effect on her, emotionally and physically," Valdez said. "She wants this to be over. She wants to be vindicated."

Vega said Jamie Rosales has a learning disability and will plead not guilty.

He declined to say where his client was the day of her son's death, but said he knew of no order forbidding the boy to be watched by his aunt.