A Tarrant County jury sentenced Ivan Ssenengo to 27 years in prison this week after finding him guilty of aggravated assault of a family member causing serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon in a case involving the assault of a two-month-old infant, which resulted in multiple skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury. The sentence stems from an assault that prosecutors claim occurred in March 2025.
According to the Tarrant County District Attorney, Ssenengo was tried in the 213th District Court, where court trial records show the case was formally charged with damage to a child with intent to inflict serious bodily injury or mental impairment. According to the same records, defense attorneys Rob Hayden and Rob Cowie represented Ssenengo at trial. The 213th District Court is located on the 8th floor of the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center at 401 W. Belknap St. in Fort Worth, where State District Judge Michael Ferry presides over felony cases.
According to the Tarrant County DA’s website, Assistant District Attorneys Steven Elliott and Alexander Trono prosecuted the case, which was also assigned to Investigator Brent Ezelle and Victim Coordinator Carma Anderson. The office publicly praised Detective Thedford and the Arlington Police Department, which handled the investigation, for their efforts and dedication to community safety. According to legal analysis of Texas Penal Code § 22.04, intentionally or knowingly causing serious bodily injury to a child under 15 is a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Tarrant County’s Special Victims Unit investigates crimes against children through multidisciplinary teams that include local police departments, Cook Children’s Medical Center, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, and Alliance for Children. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office processes around 45,000 criminal case submissions yearly from the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, according to District Attorney Phil Sorrells, who has managed the office since January 2023.
The Arlington Police Department, which led the on-the-ground investigation in this case, has specialized investigative units as well as a Victim Services Unit that provides crisis intervention, social service referrals, and courtroom accompaniment to crime victims throughout investigations and trials, according to the City of Arlington. Assistant District Attorney Steven Elliott, who prosecuted the Ssenengo case, was also credited this week with assisting in the international extradition from Mexico of a mother charged in the 1997 cold-case death of her toddler daughter in Tarrant County, which Hoodline covered in its report on the Fort Worth mom apprehended in Mexico.
This case follows a run of serious child abuse prosecutions in Tarrant County in recent months. According to Hoodline, in November 2025, a Tarrant County jury sentenced 34-year-old Martin Gonzalez to 50 years in jail for aggravated assault of a family member and damage to a child by omission during a trial involving serious physical abuse against a 4-year-old in Fort Worth. Carlos Aguilera, an Arlington man, was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the sex abuse of young relatives after an Arlington Police Department investigation and Tarrant County District Attorney’s prosecution.
State-level data demonstrates why local officials have continued to advocate for hefty punishments in cases involving newborns and young children. According to federal data from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Texas child protective services conducted investigations involving 245,536 children reported to have been maltreated in 2024, a decrease from 280,483 the previous year. In a statewide child mortality investigation, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services revealed that Tarrant County had 13 child maltreatment fatalities in a single year, with deadly physical abuse typically involving blunt force trauma inflicted by a parent or partner.
The Ssenengo case still has unanswered questions, such as the specific relationship between Ssenengo and the infant outside of the family violence classification under which he was prosecuted, as well as the child’s long-term medical condition. Neither detail was made public in the court documents reviewed for this research.
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