Couple Arrested for Allegedly Branding and Torturing 5 Nieces and Nephews

Rialto, California couple Jessica Salas-Ruiz and Fernando Inzunza have been arrested after they allegedly tortured and branded five young relatives.

Per KTLA, the couple were arrested in the past week after the abuse was reported to the nearby police department in January, due to concerns regarding an August 2021 investigation from the Barstow Police Department. The couple’s nieces and nephews, who range in age from 11 to 17, lived with the couple in Rialto from 2017 to 2021. During that timeframe, they were allegedly subjected to “various forms of physical abuse and torture including branding, strangulation, and being shot with pellet guns,” according to a news release from authorities.

“On Wednesday, May 25, 2022, Jessica Salas-Ruiz and Fernando Inzunza were taken into custody by the Rialto Police Department and booked into the West Valley Detention Center for multiple counts of Corporal punishment of a child with bail amounts of $750,000,” reads the release. It notes that medical examinations showed physical evidence of violence that lined up with the accounts shared by the victims.

When the children moved in with other relatives in late 2021, the alleged abuse was reported to the Barstow Police. According to authorities, the mother of the children isn’t always in their lives and they have different fathers.

“They were hit with belts, shot with BB guns and paint guns, made to kneel on rice as a form of punishment for long periods of time, pant leg up so they could feel more painfully,” said Rialto Police Detective Erica Duque, per NBC Los Angeles.