Family members say they tried to help little girl

Evelyn was their little tornado, ever inquisitive, in command of a room the minute she blew into town.

But the once playful 5-year-old girl grew sad and withdrawn.

After noticing some bumps and bruises, her aunt and a family friend feared someone was hitting the little girl and began asking questions.

Despite their attempt to intervene, Evelyn was dead two weeks later.

Prosecutors continued Thursday presenting their case against a Woodridge mother charged with fatally beating the girl July 6, 2007, four months after she arrived from Mexico.

Christina Beltran, 24, is accused of slamming Evelyn's head against the floor after she soiled herself. Prosecutors contend Beltran resented Evelyn because the woman became pregnant with her after being raped in Mexico.

Beltran confessed in two videotaped police interviews, but she recanted and said her live-in boyfriend is the one who beat Evelyn.

The former couple also was raising twin infant sons in their one-bedroom apartment.

Beltran alleges Victor Jimenez manipulated her into taking the blame because he, unlike her, was in the country legally and could better care for their sons. Jimenez denied killing Evelyn during his testimony. Prosecutors have not charged him with a crime.

On Thursday, a family friend and the child's aunt testified they asked repeated questions of Beltran and, separately, Evelyn but both said the injuries were accidental.

Two weeks later, Beltran took an unresponsive Evelyn to a Bolingbrook urgent care center.

Evelyn showed no signs of life, but medical officials rushed her by ambulance to Edward Hospital in Naperville just in case she could be revived.

Staff members testified Beltran told them Evelyn had hit her head in the bathtub.

It was Laurie Fernandez, a registered nurse, who told Beltran that Evelyn had died.

"She was crying and seemed to be grieving appropriately," Fernandez said. "Then her behavior became very bizarre. She was hovering over Evelyn's head, kind of whispering to her. She seemed paranoid. At one point, she wanted to take (Evelyn's body) off the table. She wanted to take her home with her."

Afterward, Beltran suffered a mental breakdown and had to be hospitalized for several days.

The woman's trial continues today in DuPage County.