'Something was wrong' with Raffy, birth mother said

EPHRATA — Ephrata mother Maribel Gomez told a Grant County courtroom Tuesday she never abused her son Rafael "Raffy" Gomez, saying the numerous injuries he suffered during his short life were self-inflicted.

"I would certainly never do anything to any of my children," Gomez said in Grant County Superior Court. She testified she never saw anyone abuse Raffy.

Gomez, 32, is on trial for homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter charges stemming from 2-year-old Raffy's September 2003 death. Gomez faces up to 26 years in prison if found guilty of homicide by abuse by Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz, who's overseeing the non-jury trial.

Gomez arrived from Mexico, as an illegal immigrant, about 17 to 18 years ago. She has five other children, all in foster care.

Gomez, a stay-at-home mom and Raffy's primary caregiver during most of the final year of his life, told the court Raffy behaved abnormally and needed special attention from her.

"I don't know what, but I knew something was wrong," Gomez said. "My son always alarmed me."

She said Raffy's abnormal behaviors included tendencies to throw himself down, bang his head, overstuff himself with food, viciously bite himself and others, pick his scabs and eat them.

"Did you at one point believe Raffy could be retarded?" Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell asked Gomez during his cross-examination.

Gomez insisted she regularly reported the behaviors to social workers.

Knodell said when Raffy was seriously injured, Gomez didn't always take her son to a doctor.

During Raffy's autopsy, both his upper-arm bones were found to be repeatedly broken at the sockets, but no doctor ever reported seeing Raffy for such an injury. Gomez told Knodell she never noticed problems with Raffy's arms or shoulders.

When Raffy's left hand had blistering burns, she treated it with penicillin. Doctors didn't see the burns until Raffy was rushed to the hospital with a broken femur in December 2002.

Knodell questioned Gomez about her actions when Raffy lost consciousness after falling twice in her kitchen on Sept. 9, 2003, the day before he died.

"Up to that day, Raffy was acting perfectly normal, wasn't he?" Knodell asked. Gomez agreed.

Gomez said Raffy was standing in front of her, while she fed him and his younger brother, Edgar, noodles in the family's kitchen. When the noodles were gone, Raffy fussed, tossed himself backward and struck his head, his mother recalled. He lifted his head and hit it two more times.

She got more food.

Gomez tried to sit Raffy down, she testified, to feed him more noodles. But he wanted to stand, the mother said.

Knodell demanded to know why she allowed him to stand after he'd just fallen and knocked his head on the hard kitchen floor.

"He was angry and wanted to eat that way," Gomez said.

Knodell asked why she didn't turn Raffy around, so he'd safely land in her lap if he pitched backward again.

Knodell questioned her why she didn't put a cushion behind him, saying Gomez should've known Raffy would go backward again.

It never occurred to her Raffy would go down again, she said.

He did. This time, he went limp and his eyes rolled back into his head, Gomez said.

Knodell asked Gomez why she didn't call 911 or rush Raffy to the hospital.

"Did it not occur to you at this point that he was seriously injured?" Knodell said.

Gomez said she thought he was choking and went next door to a neighbor's home for alcohol to rub on Raffy's body to revive him.

From there, she called a social worker she trusted, Murray Twelves, with the state Department of Social and Health Services.

"I said 'Murray, I'm taking (Raffy) to the hospital. I want you to be there so they don't take him away from me,'" Gomez said.

During the previous year, Raffy was taken from Gomez on multiple occasions and placed back with his foster parents in Royal City after he sustained broken legs, skull fractures, cuts and bruises.

The neighbors then took Gomez and an unconscious Raffy to Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata. From there he was airlifted to a Spokane hospital and died Sept. 10, 2003.

An autopsy a day later concluded his death was homicide. Blunt-force trauma to his head was to blame, according to a deputy Spokane County Medical Examiner.

The trial continues today with testimony from Raffy's father, Jose Arechiga. Defense lawyer Bobby Moser may also call former social worker Gracie Alvarado to the stand.