On October 8, 2022, at approximately 10:52 a.m., the Arlington Police Department responded to a home in the 400 block of Roberts Circle after the parents of a four-month-old boy reported that he was not breathing.
The baby, who was publicly identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office as Hugo Gomez Mejia, was transported to an area hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.
The baby's mother told officers she and her son had been sleeping in a back bedroom and when she went to check on him, he appeared to be unresponsive.
An initial autopsy report indicated the baby had signs of internal trauma consistent with being shaken.
Following subsequent investigation and interviews with the child's parents, detectives determined the baby began displaying signs of distress the night before his death -- and that his father, 36-year-old Victor Gomez, was the only person with him during that timeframe. They obtained a warrant for Mr. Gomez's arrest on one count of Injury to a Child - Serious Bodily Injury.
Mr. Gomez was taken into custody on the warrant on October 12, 2022.
On June 28, 2023, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office officially ruled the cause of the baby's death as blunt force injuries of the head and the manner of death a homicide.
Based on these rulings, the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office upgraded Mr. Gomez's charge to Capital Murder.
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