Bodycam footage has captured the moment a tearful teenager from New Mexico admitted giving birth to a baby boy and dumping him in a trash can, because she was “scared” and “didn’t know what to do”.
Alexee Trevizo, 19, can be heard telling her mother: “It came out of me. I put it in the bag. In the trash bag. I’m sorry mom.’
She has been charged with first degree murder, but has been released on bail until she stands trial. The incident happened at Artesia General Hospital back in January when Trevizo booked into the hospital complaining of having back pain.
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Tests quickly revealed she was pregnant and in the final stages of labor. The young woman was then said to have locked herself in a hospital bathroom, staying there for some considerable time.
It is thought she then returned to her bed. A short time later a cleaner entered the bathroom and found it covered in blood. Then, after lifting a suspiciously heavy trash bag, she alerted nurses.
In bodycam footage, a doctor wearing a white coat is seen explaining to Trevizo and her mother: “We discovered a dead baby in the bathroom.”
Trevizo tells the doctor: “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.’
Trevizo’s shocked mother holds her head in her hands and asks of her daughter: “What did you do?”
“What did you do to it?” the mother again demands, holding her head in her hands. Then the doctor steps in and says: “Stop right there. The number one priority, guys, is she just had a baby. I don’t know whether she has delivered the placenta. She’s bleeding significantly.” She then announces that the distressed teenager must be taken along to the obstetrician.
The doctor then continues in a calm and measured manner: “I’m sorry about this, but in terms of delivering a baby and it looked like you tried to hide it, we do have to have the police involved. The baby is going to have to be taken for autopsy and there will be an investigator and everything.”
She continues: “I’m so sorry, but we need to do this correctly and I want to be transparent with you about what our steps are going to be.”
“Nothing was crying. It came out with nothing,” Trevizo is heard to insist.
A male medic in the room then asks mother and daughter if they had questions. Trevizo’s mother asks the size of the baby. “It’s full term,” the medic replies.
“What!” she exclaims, apparently in surprise, suggesting she did not know her daughter had been pregnant. “Lexi, have you watched the news, about what the girls do to their babies and they go to jail”.
Traumatized, Trevizo bursts into tears and is then told that there are detectives on the way to talk to her and that she is now detained in the hospital under police custody.
In a statement Artesia Police Department said: “Our officers and crime scene processor, along with the hospital staff, experienced a heart-breaking situation on that January morning and have been coping with what they encountered. 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. Our routine calls of service or emergency responses are usually carried out easily with commitment and dedication for 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, counselling, and stress management tools to help our staff cope with this traumatic event, so that they may continue their dedicated service.”
Referring to the teenager, the statement added: “As far as Trevizo is concerned, she refused to speak to our investigators on the incident.”
At the beginning of the released body cam footage, a nurse told responding officers that Trevizo had a positive pregnancy test but denied having sex.
According to initial investigations, detectives alleged that Trevizo had locked herself in the hospital bathroom on January 27 and gave birth to a baby boy before placing him in a trash can. By time the baby was found by the cleaner, he had died, investigators said. An autopsy in March listed the cause of death as homicide.
On May 10 Police charged Trevizo with first-degree murder, with an alternative charge of intentional abuse of a child resulting in death, plus a count for tampering with evidence.
Trevizo has been released from custody and will be able to finish her school year without an ankle monitor or house arrest, while she awaits trial. Gary C. Mitchell, an attorney for Trevizo, previously told the Associated Press that she had no criminal record and should not be facing a murder charge.
He said there were “major discrepancies about what happened” in the hospital and that this was not “a classic child abuse case”.
Artesia General Hospital and representatives for Alexee Trevizo have been contacted for comment, reports Mail Online
