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Leone

LAS CRUCES - A field worker has been indicted for allegedly abusing his girlfriend's 4-year-old son, fracturing his arm, chest and pelvis and leaving him covered in bruises, scratches, cuts and welts,

Eric James Leone, 29, remains in jail under a $25,000 secured bond after being charged by a Do-a Ana County grand jury with first-degree intentional child abuse Thursday.

Leone, originally from Charlottesville, Va., faces mandatory prison time if convicted of the charge due to, according to court records, past convictions for transporting chemicals to make drugs, assault with injury to a family member and evading arrest in El Paso.

The boy's mother's case has not yet been presented to grand jury for a possible indictment. Christina Shields, 24, was jailed for a day - originally on a $25,000 cash-only bond - before being released on a $25,000 secured bond, the Do-a Ana County Detention Center said Monday.

The couple was under investigation by Texas Child Protective Services for taking the boy and a 5-year-old sibling out of school in El Paso when they moved to the Gala Way Mobile Home Park four months ago, just a few spaces down from where a meth lab was shut down in 2004, according to authorities.

The sheriff's office became involved Jan. 24 when officials at Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso contacted them. The boy had been taken there by his grandmother, who hadn't seen the boy in several weeks and became concerned, according to sheriff's Lt. Michael Kinney.

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When she went to Chaparral and saw the boy's condition, she immediately took him to the hospital. After his release three days later, he and his sibling were taken into the custody of Texas CPS.

The couple allegedly told investigators they had "absolutely no idea" how the boy was injured, Kinney said.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5400.