DEL VALLE, Texas – A 34-year-old Del Valle mother was arrested Friday afternoon more than a month after she is accused of putting the drug P.C.P. in her daughter’s lunch.
Torina Ann Gutierrez is charged with Endangering a Child, a state jail felony.
The few neighbors living in the Timberhills Neighborhood in Del Valle, a few doors down from Gutierrez’s home, say they would always see police officers at the home where the little girl lived with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
“She was very friendly and very hyper. She would come over and play with the kids, my Grand kids,” said one neighbor who only wanted to be identified as “Joel”.
According to Gutierrez’s arrest warrant affidavit, on May 4 the 6-year-old was at her school, Popham Elementary in Del Valle when educators noticed her acting like she was under the influence of drugs.
The little girl told teachers and counselors that it felt like there was banging in her head and she was observed talking to people who were not there.
Travis County Sheriff Deputies say Gutierrez made her daughter’s lunch that day -- a sandwich.
The little girl later described the meat in the sandwich by saying that it was like eating fireworks.
A computer search on Gutierrez showed a laundry list of previous arrests ranging from assault with bodily injury to felony theft and drug possession.
While Deputies would not release the 6-year-old’s condition, they did say the P.C.P. didn’t do any permanent damage that they can tell.
The child is now in the custody of Child Protective Services.
If convicted Gutierrez could receive up to 2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
