Bernalillo County child abuse case ends with conditional discharge

A Bernalillo County judge sentenced Thomas Candelaria to a conditional discharge of three years without supervision after a child-abuse case tied to a toddler’s severe injuries moved through the Second Judicial District. Judge Cindy Leos imposed the sentence on Thursday, and Candelaria had already served about two and a half years in young adult court.

Court records in the case said the child was 18 months old when he suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm, a broken jaw and signs of choking. Investigators said those injuries did not match Candelaria’s explanation that the child had run into a refrigerator. The abuse was described as happening multiple times in November 2021, when Candelaria was 22.

The case first reached prosecutors in August 2022, after medical staff found multiple injuries on Candelaria’s girlfriend’s young son and Candelaria was charged, then 23. Jury selection began in January 2024, and the case later advanced to sentencing after a detention hearing last year in which retired Judge Stan Whitaker released Candelaria under strict conditions, including no contact with the child.

Assistant district attorney Crystal Cabrido said treatment was a positive step, but “justice and accountability still had not been fully met.” Her reaction underscored the tension in a case that ended without additional supervised custody, despite injuries that prosecutors and investigators said were severe and inconsistent with the explanation Candelaria gave.

The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office says its Major Crimes Division handles serious violent felonies, and its Special Victims Unit prosecutes crimes against children involving physical abuse, sexual abuse and homicide. The office says it evaluates about 25,000 cases a year referred by law-enforcement partners, a workload that puts child-abuse prosecutions alongside some of the county’s most serious violent-crime cases.