Medical Examiner Says Newborn Boy’s Death Was A Homicide
HOUSTON (AP) – The death of a newborn whose 14-year-old mother delivered him in a junior high school toilet then attempted to flush him is classified as a homicide, a medical examiner has ruled.
The April 2 death at Cedar Bayou Junior School was the result of the baby being placed underwater, Harris County medical examiner ruled Monday. The baby also had paper in his throat, said Beverly Begay, the medical examiner’s spokeswoman.
The cause and manner of death were released, but the full report isn’t complete yet, Begay told the Houston Chronicle in Tuesday’s editions.
Baytown police spokesman Eric Freed said investigators will review the full autopsy to decide whether the eighth-grade mother will face charges. Killing an infant is a capital crime in Texas, but 14-year-olds are too young to be eligible for the death penalty.
The girl’s attorney, Gerald Yoakum, said the death was an accident and that she never saw her son splash into the water.
“I can’t believe they want to paint her as a murderer,” he said. “The first time that she actually saw her baby was at the funeral home. She is now mourning his death and through counseling learning to accept what happened.”
The mother, whose name has not been released because she is a juvenile, thought that at the most she was having a miscarriage, Yoakum said.
Investigators have stated the baby “cried at least once” before his mother attempted to flush him down the toilet. An autopsy confirmed the baby was alive when he was born.
People who knew the girl had said she wore baggy clothing, and nobody suspected she was pregnant. School officials learned of her pregnancy when another student in the restroom asked a nurse for help, a school district spokeswoman has said.
The nurse and an assistant principal ran to the bathroom, discovered the girl had given birth and called 911.
Baytown is about 25 miles east of Houston.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
