Henderson mom stands by daughter accused of killing 2-year-old son

The mother of a Henderson woman charged with murder in the death of her 2-year-old special needs son is standing by her daughter.

In an exclusive interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Marina Vance said her daughter, 29-year-old Jazmin Ramirez, did not kill her son, Uriel Heczko, as police have alleged.

“The bottom line is she’s not a monster, she’s not,” Vance said, fighting back tears Wednesday at the family’s home.

Vance, who has endured a string of family tragedies in recent years, including the death of her son while serving in the military in Iraq, disputes the findings of a police report that said the child’s injuries were consistent with being shaken or abused.

She said she never saw Ramirez shake her son, who had numerous birth defects, brain deficiencies and heart problems, and that she wasn’t strong enough, being eight-months pregnant, to have caused such an injury to him.

Vance also denied that Ramirez did not tell her or medical personnel at St. Rose Dominican Hospital’s Siena campus who initially treated Uriel on March 10 that he had fallen off a bed and struck his head, as asserted in the nine-page police report.

‘Determined to be a lie’

The report by Henderson police Detective Wayne Nichols states that Ramirez did not immediately mention the fall in a phone call to Vance and that her claim that she had informed hospital staff “was later determined to be a lie.”

“The fact that Jazmin did not disclose the fall clearly had an immense impact on provided care by hospital staff,” Nichols wrote.

“It’s believed that Jazmin did not disclose the alleged fall because she knew subsequent medical testing would have revealed his true injuries,” the report said.

The report said that Uriel died from “acute (recent) … bleeding on the brain,” though the Clark County coroner has not yet determined an official cause of death.

Vance, however, said that Ramirez, who was arrested Tuesday and charged with Uriel’s murder, did inform the staff about the fall and that a doctor at the hospital told her that day that Uriel’s brain was so fragile that his internal head injuries could have been caused by seizures.

Uriel was born prematurely Sept. 12, 2014, weighing only 2 pounds, 9 ounces. He spent the first year of his life in Sunrise Children’s Hospital, where he underwent numerous surgeries on his heart, cleft lip, nose and palate. His thumb was amputated. He had a club foot and twisted spine, often required mechanical assistance breathing and had problems with his lungs and kidneys, according to the Facebook page Prayers for Uriel.

He began experiencing seizures and briefly stopped breathing on Oct. 21, 2016, and was subsequently put on anti-seizure medication.

On the morning of March 10, Vance said Ramirez called her at work to say that Uriel had a seizure and that a friend was driving them to St. Rose hospital’s Siena campus.

Vance left work and met them at the hospital, where she observed Uriel thrashing his arm and breathing heavy. She said the doctor told her he was bleeding from his nose because he had bitten his tongue, causing blood to flow up through the hole in his cleft palate.

Stopped breathing in bed

Nevertheless, he was released from the hospital because a doctor said tests showed he was OK and medication for the seizure would soon kick in. Later that night he stopped breathing while in bed. Vance said paramedics were called and he was transported to St. Rose Siena and then to Sunrise Children’s Hospital. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead two days later.

According to the Department of Family Services, the family had a history with Child Protective Services that began in 2008 before Uriel was born.

Child Protective Services received four separate reports alleging neglect, according to a Family Services public disclosure form. Two of the four cases were closed, and the other two were “found unsubstantiated,” the department said.

The sudden death of her grandson and arrest of her daughter are the latest in a series of personal tragedies for Vance.

She lost her son, Army Spc. Ignacio “Nacho” Ramirez, to a roadside bomb attack in Iraq in 2006.

Now the “Gold Star” mother is simultaneously grieving for her grandson and defending Ramirez.

“I already lost my son, my grandson, and now my daughter for this,” she said. “What do they want from me? I cannot do anything.

“I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I’m a strong person but where’s the human kindness?”

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Follow @KeithRogers2 on Twitter.