A look at “Alexis Avila sentenced for tossing baby into dumpster” A 19-year-old mother in New Mexico will spend more than a decade behind bars for stuffing her newborn baby in a plastic bag filled with trash and tossing it into a commercial dumpster behind a shopping mall early last year.
State District Judge William G.W. Shoobridge on Monday ordered Alexis Avila to serve 18 years in prison after a jury last month found her guilty on one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of intentional child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, authorities announced.
Alexis Avila sentenced for tossing baby into dumpster
Judge Shoobridge agreed to suspend two years of the sentence, reasoning that Avila’s mental health troubles and age were reasons for some leeway in her punishment. Including the 475 days she was credited with for time already served, Avila will effectively serve a 15-year sentence for her crime and be released when she is 34.
Monday’s Sentencing Hearing
“This was a heinous crime. To toss one’s own child into a dumpster like trash is something that is unforgivable by any mother,” Judge Shoobridge told Avila after handing down the sentence. “Your child was very vulnerable. But for the grace of God and the happenstance of the three dumpster divers that found your child, we certainly would be here sentencing you on a murder case as opposed to where you are.”
He said it was a miracle that the child survived in the frigid outdoor conditions where Avila discarded him.
Prosecutors sought a harsher sentence and emphasized Avila’s apparent lack of remorse throughout the ordeal.
“Your Honor, what we see here is a pattern of someone who is not only showing remorse, but someone who, in fact, takes deliberate steps in her own recollection of this event to minimize her own role,” Attorney General Deputy of Prosecution Mark Probasco said. “It’s something that was manifest and clear in the video, which was that she was attempting to kill the most innocent life, the most helpless life, of her own child.”