A 19-year-old in New Mexico is facing a charge of first-degree murder with the alternative of child abuse resulting in death, as well as a charge of tampering with evidence after her full-term baby, reportedly born at 38 weeks, was found dead in a hospital garbage bag.
Alexee Trevizo allegedly went to Artesia General Hospital in late January, complaining of back pains. She denied being pregnant, but the lab work run by doctors showed she was. While at the hospital, Trevizo locked herself in the bathroom for an extended period of time, according to KOB 4.
After Trevizo returned from the bathroom, a member of custodial staff found a large blood spill in the bathroom and said the trash bag was heavier than it should have been. She called two nurses for assistance. The nurses found the baby in the trash.
When questioned by doctors, Trevizo claimed the baby wasn’t breathing when he was born and she didn’t know what to do because he wasn’t crying. So she put him in the trash. In bodycam footage, Trevizo can be heard saying, “I’m sorry, it came out of me and I didn’t know what to do … I was just scared, it was not crying or nothing.”
When her mother asked her, “What did you do?” Trevizo stated, “It came out of me, I put it in the bag. In the trash bag. I’m sorry, Mom.”
Investigators found that the baby was born alive and died shortly after birth likely due to suffocation from being in the trash bag. An autopsy in March ruled his death a homicide. Trevizo was arrested for murder on May 10.
“Our officers and crime scene investigator, along with the hospital staff, experienced a heartbreaking situation on that January morning and have been coping with what they encountered,” said the Artesia Police Department in a statement, adding:
One of the worst calls any first responder or public service person has to respond to, is the severe injury or death of a child. We are expected to be “tough” in those types of incidents because of our job titles, but in all actuality, we are quite the opposite after we have time to process what happened.
Our routine calls of service or emergency responses are usually carried out easily with commitment and dedication to our city, but a call like this can be a breaking point for some or all of those involved. It’s important that we provide the very best resources, counseling, and stress management tools to help our staff cope with this traumatic event, so that they may continue their dedicated service.
Trevizo has been released from jail and will finish out the school year while she awaits her trial. Her attorney, Gary C. Mitchell, told the Associated Press that Trevizo has no criminal record and should not be facing a murder charge, citing “major discrepancies about what happened.”
In 2020, in Hobbs, New Mexico, Alexis Avila, 19, was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and abuse of a child resulting in great bodily harm for throwing her newborn into an outdoor trash receptacle. The baby was found by passersby and rescued. The baby’s paternal grandfather fought for custody and that child is reportedly doing well.
New Mexico’s Safe Haven law allows parents to leave a baby up to 90 days old at “safe haven sites” such as a hospital, fire station, or police station, without facing charges. However, New Mexico has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the nation — allowing abortion through birth for any reason.
“New Mexico leaders celebrated the fact that we are one of only a few remaining states that allow abortion to be performed at any stage during the pregnancy. Yes, any stage, including up to the day of birth. Our current leaders would have you believe that the protection of life is archaic, and in so doing they have instituted a culture of death and applauded themselves for it,” said Jodi Hendricks, executive director of the Family Policy Alliance in January.
If Trevizo had aborted her baby just hours earlier, by New Mexico law she would have been exercising her right to bodily autonomy and health care, based on comments made by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
