Police arrested 48-year-old Maria Sixtos De Los Angeles in her Delhi home Friday Morning.
In 2011, police say Sixtos was living in Livingston and babysitting a 15-month-old toddler when he died in her care. Sixtos told police it was an accident, but police were suspicious at the time because they believed the child had injuries to the head.
The investigation stalled because the forensic pathologist at the coroner's office abruptly left and never finished the report. The forensic pathologist returned last year and completed the report and gave to police in May.
Detectives say they could not act without that report. Neighbors say they remembered the boy's death but always believed it was an accident.
"She said she was babysitting this child. She said he was the child of someone her daughter worked with at the clinic here in Livingston and it was the first time she was taking care of him," Anne Land, a neighbor said.
Police say during the arrest, Sixtos admitted to getting angry at the boy and throwing him into a couch. She is being held behind bars on $1 million bond. Sixtos is charged with assault on a child causing death and willful injury to a child.
