By Jocelyn Tovar, KTXS News
POSTED: 10:50 am CDT July 7, 2011
UPDATED: 7:19 pm CDT July 7, 2011

SWEETWATER, Texas -- The 4-year-old boy found last week abandoned and walking along Interstate 20 will stay with a foster family, a judge has ruled.

Nolan County Court at Law Judge David Hall ruled Thursday morning that Angel Flores will stay with his current foster family until a day yet to be determined.

In the meantime, Angel's biological mother, Dana Campos, and uncle Angel Estrada will be undergoing a study by Child Protective Services. This will include home evaluations, a psychological evaluation and parenting classes that could take up to 60 days to complete.

After that time, Hall could then grant custody to the mother.

The judge granted a protective order against the father, meaning that if the father were to bail out of jail, he would have to stay away from Angel.

Carlos Rico, Angel's father, has been charged with attempted capital murder and now has a $500,000 bond.

"Voices told him to strangle his son and leave him for dead," said Sweetwater Police Chief Jim Kelley.

Rico admitted to abandoning Angel on June 28.

It was during a trip with his son from Lubbock to Saginaw that Rico said he "had a religious experience where he was told to choke his son and leave him on the side of the road... and that's what he did," Kelley said.

Kelley said they've now determined the 4-year-old child spent more than three hours on the interstate by himself.

"We're lucky he didn't get run over or some pervert didn't pick him up," Kelley said.

A Sweetwater high school coach picked him up and brought him to police. Angel had noticeable choke marks around his neck while he was being treated at a local hospital.

He's made a full recovery and is in the custody of Child Protective Services.

http://www.ktxs.com/big_country_news/28474020/detail.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor