Tuesday, March 6, 2018 | 7:30 p.m.
Anthony Oceja
Loreana Martinez
At birth, Hannibal Oceja weighed a little over 6 pounds. Five days before turning 5 months old — when his limp and lifeless body was rushed to a hospital — he weighed 5 pounds.
A responding paramedic who responded to the family’s south valley apartment had to clarify with the baby’s hysterical mother that the child was a few months old and not weeks, according to a Metro Police arrest report.
A healthy child that age should weigh 18 to 20 pounds, according to the report.
Hannibal’s parents, Loreana Martinez, 24, and Anthony Oceja, 29, last week were arrested in connection with the Feb. 25 death of their baby, police said. The Clark County coroner’s office as of Tuesday afternoon hadn’t ruled on the official cause of death.
Records from a late October doctor’s office visit showed that the baby, who weighed close to 8 pounds, was well-nourished and developed, according to the report.
In December, the boy had almost lost a pound, and a nurse practitioner told Martinez to bring him back on Jan. 1, according to police.
But they never returned, as Martinez scheduled and canceled multiple appointments through February, police said.
According to the doctor in the report, “the mother was belligerent and refused to engage” when she’d tried educating her about the baby’s nutrition.
The night of Hannibal’s death, an erratic Martinez called 911 saying that her baby was not breathing, police said. He was dead by the time he arrived at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.
The baby's rib cage could “easily be seen” when investigators took pictures of the body, according to the report. “His spinal cord appeared as if it was about to poke out of the skin.”
The suspects maintained that her baby was healthy and that Martinez regularly breastfed him, police said. She said Hannibal's two older siblings were also small babies, she said.
The two surviving children were placed in protective custody, and three of the four family dogs also were malnourished and handed over to animal control, police said.
Records from Clark County Child Protective Services show that the death investigation is its first interaction with the family.
Martinez and Oceja on Feb. 28 were arrested and are being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center on one count each of murder and child abuse, and three counts of animal cruelty, jail records show. They will make a court appearance on March 19.
