DENVER — Police in Denver arrested a man Tuesday in connection with the death of a 9-month-old child last August.
Cain Gallardo, 21, was booked on suspicion of first-degree murder for the death of his girlfriend’s child, Gianna Rosales, on Aug. 3, 2020.
The injured infant was brought to Denver Health medical Center on Aug. 2. She was pronounced deceased the next day.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner determined the cause of Gianna’s death was blunt force injuries.
Police said Tuesday’s arrest came after an extensive investigation to determine how Gianna sustained the trauma. Those details were not released as the arrest affidavit is currently sealed.
The child’s father, Anthony Rosales, talked to Denver7 last August. He said he worried his daughter was in danger and contacted several agencies before her death.
“They failed me," he said in August.
Rosales said he remembered jumping out of bed early on Aug. 3, and rushed to Denver Health Medical Center after his mother told him something was wrong with his daughter.
Rosales says it was the first time he saw his daughter in more than two weeks because Gianna’s mother kept his daughter away.
"They (doctors) told me she was unresponsive and then went into cardiac arrest," Rosales said.
Rosales says he asked his daughter’s mother what happened. He says she initially told him Gianna woke up coughing up blood and later changed her story in a text message.
"She said, ‘My daughter is gone because of me. I should have been with her and I wasn't,’" he said, reading a text message he said he received from the child’s mother. "I trusted people and I don't know what happened."
He says the system failed him. Rosales wanted an officer to conduct several welfare checks on the child’s home because he feared his daughter was in danger.