STOCKTON — Heartbroken mother Brittany Gonzales heard for the first time what the state file from Child Protective Services had to say about how her baby, Jaxson Love, was fatally hurt two weeks ago while in the custody of his father and stepmother.
FOX40 fought to obtain that file. It reads in part: “Chalsey finally stated that the reason why Jaxson was currently in his vegetative state was due to her throwing him up in the air and letting him fall.”
“Oh my God,” Gonzales said as tears poured down her face.
The raw emotion just too much to contain as she thought back to moments at a Stockton hospital while her 2-year-old was unresponsive and she had no answers as to what could have gone so wrong.
“She was just so like, ‘Brittany we need to be here for each other,'” Gonzales said. “But, you know, that mother instinct kicked in in me and I was like, ‘Don’t touch me at all.'”
The woman Gonzales referred to is the person police say touched her toddler violently, his stepmother Chalsey Maynard. She’s now under arrest for abusing the boy after police say she finally abandoned stories of little Jaxson falling off a trampoline and confessed to letting him fall on his head.
CPS documents indicate her animosity for Jaxson was based on his birth from an affair Maynard’s husband had with Gonzales. Gonzales maintains she never knew Jaxson’s father was married at the time.
“If she didn’t like me so much…she should have told his dad and I would have gladly taken Jaxson under my care and not have to worry about him getting hurt like that,” Gonzales said.
Jaxson’s parents had joint custody.
There are at least 14 CPS incidents tied to Jaxson’s family, seven related to him specifically.
Gonzales says she’s tried multiple times to obtain full custody. In the parental in-fighting she’s had several reports filed against her, but none substantiated.
The file released to FOX40 references the toddler having “multiple bruises all over his body” in the last incident that brought him to the hospital.
It also details something detectives say Maynard told them happened two weeks prior when she quote “took her anger out by placing her hands around his neck and submerging him into the bath water.”
“He should be here with our family and instead he’s not,” Gonzales said. “So the only thing I hope comes out of this is justice for my son.”
She doesn’t believe there’s any way Jaxson’s father didn’t know about the abuse. She’s also concerned because there are five other children in that home.
Despite his death and gift of organ donation two weeks ago, Jaxson has yet to be laid to rest. His body is still being held by the coroner.
