Posted at: 01/30/2013 10:01 AM
By: The Associated Press
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Police say a boy offered to stay with an 8-year-old girl with developmental disabilities who was locked in a wooden cage before his New Mexico mother left her to watch a movie.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that a criminal complaint says the boy offered to stay with the girl because she was asleep and he felt uncomfortable leaving her.
But the complaint said his mother, 33-year-old Cindy Patriarchias, told him that the girl would be "fine."
Patriarchias and her 37-year-old boyfriend Edmond Gonzales are facing child abuse charges after Las Cruces police say they left the girl in the cage and unattended at a mobile home while they took three children to an elementary school Friday to watch a movie.
No attorneys are listed for Patriarchias or Gonzales.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)