Michell Blanco
Tampa mom recalls final words with slain toddler
Photo from Itzaira DeJesus
Alexis Garcia died Tuesday after emergency surgery for head injuries.
Photo from Itzaira DeJesus
Alexis Garcia died Tuesday after emergency surgery for head injuries.
TAMPA - Itzaira DeJesus remembers how happy her son was when she called from work to check on him.
Alexis, 3, had been feeding ducks.
"He told me, 'I love you, Mommy,' and I told him, 'I love you back and I'll see you later,'" DeJesus said.
Two hours later, her boyfriend called and said Alexis had fallen and was unconscious. DeJesus never got a chance to talk with her son again.
Alexis Garcia died Tuesday after emergency surgery for head injuries. The medical examiner's office determined Thursday that his death was a homicide.
Hillsborough County deputies are searching for DeJesus' boyfriend, 28-year-old Michell Blanco. He's wanted on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
"How can he do this to me?" DeJesus asked Friday. "He said he loved me. He said he loved my kid."
She doesn't know where Blanco has gone. They began dating in November and she and her son had been living with Blanco and his 5-year-old son.
DeJesus said Blanco called her Monday afternoon to tell her that Alexis had fallen while chasing ducks in the parking lot of their apartment complex on North Dale Mabry Highway.
She told him to take Alexis to a hospital; Blanco said he didn't think doctors would help because he wasn't the child's father.
When DeJesus got home from her housecleaning job, Alexis was in bed, unconscious and struggling to breathe. She carried her son to her car and told him she was with him. They went to St. Joseph's Hospital.
There, DeJesus was told her son's injuries did not come from a fall, but rather "that somebody beat him up."
DeJesus said she asked Blanco whether he had beaten her child. He promised her he had not.
A private memorial service for Alexis will be held Sunday.
DeJesus said her son loved Astro Boy, animals and picking flowers.
He trusted everybody – when he met someone for the first time, he did so with a hug and a kiss.
Alexis' organs have been donated, his mother said. His heart saved a 2-year-old child in South Carolina. His liver and kidney went to children in Florida and Georgia.
"He wanted to be a superhero," DeJesus said. "And he was."
Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.
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