Mom charged in daughter's death

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. (WTNH) -- A Willimantic mother whose boyfriend was charged with killing her daughter is now facing charges herself.

The mother, 25-year-old Rosa Diaz-Mendez, was arrested on Tuesday.

"She used to run up and down," said Francisco DeJesus, "she was two years old."

DeJesus lives next door to Mendez and he doesn't have a lot of positive things to say about the Willimantic mother whose boyfriend Fredy Alexander Chingo Riz was arrested for killing her daughter back in November.

"I think her love to the guy was more was more important than the little girl," DeJesus said.

News 8 has learned from court papers that on the day before three-year-old Athena's death, Riz tells police she wasn't eating her dinner and that bothered him so he brought her into the bathroom and "...punched her in the stomach causing her to fall backwards striking the back of her head against the edge of the bathroom sink."

He would do the same thing the day she died.

Court papers also describes numerous injuries such as "... two black eyes...swelling of the eyes, nose, and forehead...bruises on her arm..."

Yet, her mother never blamed her boyfriend and police say she lied to them.

Even after her boyfriend was arrested and her other daughter was taken away by the state Mendez continued to live in the Willimantic home. Her neighbors say she never showed any remorse.

"She wouldn't never said nothing but she wouldn't," said DeJesus, "like her face was like she didn't actually care."

Mendez is charged with manslaughter, assault, and risk of injury to a minor.

"I'm glad, I hope she serves life in prison because that's like 50/50," DeJesus said. "He did it, but if she didn't do anything about it to stop it as a mother she deserves to be in there."

With a $500,000 bond she may be behind bars for a while.