The mother of a 22-month-old Lincoln boy who died Friday after months of suspected child abuse has been arrested and charged for her alleged role in the child's death, according to new court filings.
Brittany Cook, 30, repeatedly ignored clear signs of abuse displayed on her son's body up to the day she finally took him to a hospital March 12 — after suspected abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, Joshua Tackett, had left the child brain-dead, according to the filings.
Prosecutors on Thursday charged the Lincoln woman with child abuse resulting in death, a Class 1 felony punishable by 20 years to life in prison.
Tackett, 32, her boyfriend of two months, faces the same charge in addition to two felony gun charges. Tackett's mother has been charged with felony evidence tampering in the case, according to court records.
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In harrowing court records filed Wednesday, Lincoln Police Investigator Michael Barry offered the most detailed accounting yet of the alleged abuse that led to the death of Rudy Requejo-Ybarra Jr., who died Friday at a hospital in Omaha after being declared brain-dead two days earlier.
The investigation started March 12, when Cook brought her unconscious son to CHI Health St. Elizabeth "with numerous bruises and injuries," Barry said in the affidavit for Cook's arrest.
The toddler was taken by ambulance to Children's Hospital in Omaha, where physicians determined he had "severe brain swelling and bleeding, retinal hemorrhaging in both eyes, several broken ribs, injuries to his genital area and two fractures to his left tibia," Barry said in the affidavit.
The boy had bruises "all over his body" and had "pattern injuries" on his face and chest, which investigators later matched to the grill of a space heater that Cook had left running next to her son when she took a shower March 11, Barry said.
Cook initially described various accidents to explain her son's injuries, including an injury from Feb. 18, when Cook claimed Tackett had "passed out" while holding the boy and fell on top of him, Officer Brent Lovette said in an emergency custody affidavit filed last week in Lancaster County.
The toddler had not put weight on his swollen left leg since then, his mother told police. But she did not take him to a doctor.
And Cook initially claimed her son fell down a staircase at her and Tackett's apartment, near Seventh and G streets, on March 9, but Cook said he seemed uninjured from the fall, Lovette said in the affidavit.
In reality, police alleged, the woman moved her four children into Tackett's apartment March 4 and watched as scrapes and bruises repeatedly appeared on her son's body in the week that led up to his hospitalization, according to Wednesday's court filings.
"Despite noticing these injuries, Cook continued to leave (her son) in the care of Tackett," Barry said in the filings.
On March 11 — the day before Cook took her son to the hospital — police believe she came home from running errands and found the boy in his Pack n Play with a gash on the back of his head, bleeding onto a blanket, with a front tooth missing, Barry said.
But neither Cook nor her boyfriend sought medical attention for Rudy.
Instead, Barry said, the couple left the toddler in the care of Cook's other children — ages 3, 4 and 10 — and went to a casino.
And in the early morning hours of March 12, Cook left her son — who was sleeping on a hallway floor — with Tackett and went to grab fast food, Barry said.
When Cook returned, Tackett had moved the toddler to his crib. Cook showered and went to bed and woke to check on her son at 5 a.m., when she found him face-down in his crib.
Cook returned to bed after checking on her son and didn't return to his crib again until 11 a.m., when Tackett found the toddler "lifeless," Barry said.
The mother bounced on her bed with her son in her arms and took a cold shower with him, but he wouldn't wake up, according to the affidavit.
Only then — over the continued objections of Tackett — did Cook take her son to the hospital at 4 p.m., five hours after they had found him unresponsive, Barry said.
Hospital staff called police, who suspected Tackett was involved in the boy's injuries nearly immediately and began surveilling his apartment that evening.
Hours after Cook had taken Rudy to the hospital, Tackett's mom, Karen Vestecka, arrived at the couple's apartment at about 7 p.m. and left soon after, carrying a pair of shoes and a green rifle case.
Police believe Vestecka retrieved Tackett's Ruger AR .556 rifle from the apartment in an effort to shield her son from felony gun charges, since Tackett is prohibited from owning firearms because of prior felony and domestic violence-related convictions, Lincoln Police Investigator Patrick Murphy said in the affidavit for Vestecka's arrest.
Prosecutors charged the 58-year-old with tampering with physical evidence, a felony, for interfering with the investigation.
And prosecutors March 16 initially charged Tackett with two counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person after police found a second gun, a shotgun, in his apartment, Murphy said in the affidavit for Tackett's arrest.
Prosecutors added the felony child abuse charge to Tackett's case late last week and moved to increase Tackett's bail, which now stands at $2 million. He must pay $200,000 to be released.
Police arrested Cook at the department's downtown headquarters Tuesday morning.
At her initial court appearance Wednesday, which Cook attended via Zoom from a Lancaster County Jail cell, Judge Laurie Yardley set her bail at $1 million and barred her from having any contact with any child.
Cook, who said she wasn't employed and couldn't afford to hire her own attorney but otherwise did not speak at the hearing, must pay $100,000 to be released.
Her three other children have been taken into state custody.