BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Leslie Carrillo walked to the podium Tuesday with a small wooden box containing her most precious items — reminders of her son Valentin, who was just 3 weeks old when fatally injured by his father.
Inside she keeps a plaster of Paris mold of Valentin’s “tiny, chunky” hand, a pendant with an image of his hand and, perhaps most significantly, the sound of his heart.
When it became clear he wouldn’t survive, hospital staff made a recording of Valentin’s heartbeat and placed it in a stuffed giraffe, which Carrillo dressed in his onesie…