Man jailed in death of infant at Sandy Ridge
Polk County Enterprise - November 2009

ONALASKA — An Onalaska man is in the Polk County jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond after sheriff’s deputies were called to Sandy Ridge Trailer Park and found a 4-month-old infant who was unconscious and unresponsive on Nov. 13. Deputy Mike Nettles was told the infant had received a severe head injury while in the custody of Vincent Sandoval, the boyfriend of the baby’s mother. The baby was taken to the emergency room at Memorial Medical Center-Livingston and later transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. On Nov. 14, officials at the Houston hospital notified the Polk County Sheriff’s Office that the infant had died.

Chief Deputy Byron Lyons and Captain Rickie Childers of PCSO’s Criminal Investigation Division traveled to Pasadena Wednesday and met members of Pasadena’s fugitive apprehension unit and Texas Ranger Wesley Doolittle. At 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Sandoval was arrested at the La Villita Apartments in the 4300 block of South Shaver by the Pasadena apprehension team. At the time of arrest, Sandoval gave a Polk County address and is a former resident of New Mexico. Sandoval was transported back to PCSO and booked into jail for felony charge of injury to a child and bail was set at $500,000. The investigation is ongoing, Lyons said. Additional charges are likely to be filed, according to officials close to the investigation. The potential charges in this case range up to capital murder. At the time of the infant’s death, area child advocacy groups said they were alerted to possible abuse at the home. The infant’s body has not yet been released to a funeral home.