SAN ANTONIO – Testimony started Monday in the trial for Isaac Cardenas, 24, who is accused of the violent sexual assault of a toddler.

When they arrived at a south Bexar County home in January of 2017 Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies found that a 21-month-old little girl had suffered injuries they said were “too graphic to describe.”

Cardenas and his girlfriend, Crystal Herrera, were both arrested on suspicion of being involved in the child abuse case.

Herrera, 22, called 911 on Dec. 31, 2016, claiming the toddler had been attacked by dogs, but emergency medical technicians who arrived at the scene said the wounds were not consistent with the story.

During the trial a deputy testified that they were greeted with hostility when they arrived at the home where Cardenas lived.

“There were two dogs in the front yard and they were barking aggressively at us,” Deputy L. Mata testified.

Cardenas, she testified, was acting nervous, saying that “he just seemed really anxious ... real anxious.”

Mata testified that Cardenas told her that the child had wandered into the backyard where he found her bleeding and lying beneath a tree.

She said she was suspicious.

“It just looked like that area was staged,” Mata testified. “The diaper was taken off perfectly, and to me, if it would have been a dog, it would have been destroyed and the diaper as not destroyed.”

The child survived but suffered severe injuries to her sexual organs that required months of reconstructive surgery.

Cardenas is charged with super aggravated sexual assault of a child. If he is convicted, he is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Herrera was charged with injury to a child by omission. No date has been set for Herrera’s trial.

Click here to read the original story from January 2017.