$100,000 bail set in child's death.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Gary V. Murray

WORCESTER - As prosecutors await word on the cause of 4-year-old Arianie Acevedo's death, her mother's boyfriend was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail yesterday.

Richard Castillo, 33, and the child's mother, 27-year-old Lymari Acevedo, both of 23 West Boylston Drive, were each charged with assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury and permitting substantial bodily injury to a child, after police were called to their home Feb. 17 to investigate a report that the 4-year-old was unresponsive.

The child was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus, where she was pronounced dead.

An autopsy that followed revealed the girl had suffered lacerations of the abdomen, intestine and kidney, had bruising on her back and torso, and appeared to have both fresh and healed rib fractures, prosecutors have said.

The cause of her death has not yet been determined.

Mr. Castillo and Ms. Acevedo were ordered held without bail at their Feb. 18 arraignments in Central District Court.

Mr. Castillo's lawyer, Greg T. Schubert, sought a bail review on his client's behalf in Worcester Superior Court, where he asked Judge James R. Lemire yesterday to release Mr. Castillo on personal recognizance with an electronic monitoring device.

Noting that a ruling on the cause of the 4-year-old's death was still pending, Mr. Schubert told the court the prosecution's case against his client was based solely on "conjecture and surmise."

The defense lawyer said there was no evidence that Mr. Castillo did anything to harm the child or cause her death.

"Let me be clear about that...