A now-18-year-outdated female is billed with two counts of initially-diploma murder for allegedly stabbing and killing her new child toddler in Weld County, Colorado. The counts allege distinctive legal theories by which prosecutors hope achieve a conviction there is only one particular victim.
The defendant, Leiyla Marrissa Cepeda, is from Texas, the Weld County District Attorney’s workplace said. She was arrested on Friday, according to a press launch.
Cepeda was 17 when she gave beginning to a newborn in Colorado on Wednesday, June 8, the DA’s office environment indicated. Cepeda has considering the fact that turned 18 and is charged as an adult, in accordance to court docket papers. She was, as of Friday, in custody at a area hospital, and no court docket date has been established for her to appear prior to a judge. The defendant’s identify does not but seem in numerous jail databases as of Saturday.
The situation unfolded when authorities have been identified as on Wednesday to a report of a “deceased feminine toddler that was found” in a home in Nunn, Colorado, a small town of a tiny additional than 400 persons about 20 minutes south of the Wyoming border and about an hour and a fifty percent north of downtown Denver.
“The toddler had what appeared to be stab wounds to her body,” the DA’s office environment mentioned.
According to a police affidavit produced by the DA’s workplace, the stab wounds have been to the infant’s torso.
Cepeda initially “told responding healthcare staff she wasn’t feeling properly and experienced not knowledgeable her spouse and children she was pregnant,” the affidavit implies. Cepeda mentioned the toddler was not respiratory when it was born and that “she experienced used a compact pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord,” the doc carries on. Cepeda then allegedly explained she went upstairs to get a shower.
The affidavit carries on by explaining what the law enforcement did future:
Officer Balltrip of the Nunn Police office and the Weld County Coroner’s Investigator, Maria Ordonez entered the scene and took pictures of the criminal offense scene. A bed room found in the basement of the residence is wherever the little one was found. Officer Balltrip observed what appeared to be stab wounds to the torso and chest of the deceased new born child. Officer Balltrip located a smaller pair of scissors lying on the foot of the mattress. These scissors had what appeared to be dried blood on them.
Just after gathering the scissors as evidence, the officers investigated even further:
Officer Balltrip discovered there was a substantial sum of blood on the ground, partitions, curtains and towels in the place. Beneath the bed officers found women’s underwear, napkins and leggings that appeared to made up of [sic] an mysterious liquid.
Moreover, Officer Balltrip observed what appeared to be section of a minimize umbilical wire and some form of membrane on the ground as well as a bloody towel with some kind of membrane noticeable.
The affidavit says a woman in the household named Sylvia Segura explained she was the 1 who named 911 and cleaned up some of the bloody scene.
Balltrip, the officer, took proof photographs of the alleged sufferer “showing the suspected stab wounds to the upper body and torso,” the affidavit states.
The coroner’s business office took custody of the victim’s system, a bloody towel, and section of the infant’s umbilical twine, the affidavit implies.
Rosalinda Ledesma (the defendant’s mother), Joseph Segura, Sylvia Segura, Felicia Segura, and K.C. Bartholomew had been stated by the authorities to have been in the home when the defendant gave start in the early early morning hrs.
A warrant was received, and the property in Nunn was afterwards searched. The affidavit is not fully clear about the fruits of that energy.
The defendant turned 18 just two days following providing delivery to the now-dead toddler, the document indicates. She was taken to a medical center specifically from the scene. Police afterwards wrote in the affidavit that the defendant was on suffering treatment by way of a “pain pump” in the healthcare facility and experienced experienced “unexpected bleeding.” The defendant reportedly wanted blood transfusions and a “medical procedure” to “stop the bleeding,” a nurse told the police, according to the affidavit.
The nurse also claimed the defendant indicated she stopped having thyroid medication “when she uncovered out she was pregnant.” Nonetheless, the defendant also reported “she didn’t know she was expecting,” in accordance to the nurse’s statements as outlined in the affidavit. The nurse explained the defendant’s admission that she realized she was expecting and as a result stopped using medication was, in her view, some type of a “slip up,” the police affidavit signifies.
Ledesma, the defendant’s mom, also claimed she didn’t know the defendant was expecting, in accordance to the hospital nurse. The nurse advised the mother that the defendant would probable be in the healthcare facility for three days the mom mentioned the family was scheduling to return to Texas on Saturday, the police affidavit recalled.
A file image demonstrates the Weld County, Colorado courthouse. (Graphic through YouTube screengrab.)
The law enforcement then requested Ledesma to communicate with them privately. The affidavit says she described what transpired with her daughter as “the variety of stuff you see in the films.” The mother claimed that she did not know her daughter was pregnant and that her daughter was “beating herself up” for not trusting her mother plenty of to express that info.
In accordance to the affidavit, Ledesma said the day started with a purchasing vacation. She reported her daughter began experiencing back soreness and menstrual cramps, did not take in, and became tired when going for walks, but she did not suspect being pregnant for the reason that of her daughter’s frequent “weight fluctuates.” She also claimed her daughter “had COVID” at one position.
On the way residence, Ledesma stated she asked her daughter bluntly if she was expecting. When her daughter answered in the destructive, Ledesma allegedly instructed her daughter that she was setting up to “look like a pregnant female in labor.”
When the spouse and children returned residence, the defendant allegedly locked herself in a downstairs area. Ledesma requested the defendant to open up the doorway inside, the defendant was “laying on the floor” amid pillows because she claimed her “back was hurting,” the affidavit states.
Ledesma told her daughter not to lock the doorway yet again in circumstance there was an unexpected emergency, in accordance to the police.
Ledesma explained to the police she went to mattress at 1:00 a.m. with out listening to a seem, the affidavit claims.
At 2:30 a.m. Ledesma claimed Joseph Segura woke up and found a trail of blood top into a toilet. Cepeda, the defendant, was inside of, the police were being told.
Relatives started to suspect that Cepeda experienced birthed a infant Ledesma allegedly instructed the law enforcement that her sister saw a “little knee, leg bent” about this time — as a result confirming the suspicions. The family then resolved to get in touch with 911. The spouse and children, apparently increasingly terrified, also went to examine the baby Ledesma explained it to the law enforcement as “pale” and said it “looked like a minor doll,” in accordance to the affidavit. The relatives “didn’t feel it was alive,” the affidavit claims.
Cepeda apparently advised her mother that “there was so much blood and the little one just fell,” Ledesma recalled, once more for each the affidavit.
Ledesma allegedly mentioned she implored her daughter to explain to her the fact. Cepeda allegedly advised her mom that the “baby never built a audio and her experience seemed purple.” Cepeda also allegedly claimed she “never felt the baby transferring in her stomach.”
In the affidavit, Ledesma told the law enforcement that the toddler appeared to be a “full-expression little one.”
Ledesma additional mentioned that her daughter was not the variety to harm a youngster. She mentioned her daughter was known to issue how or why other moms could depart their infants, that her daughter liked little ones, that her daughter utilized to support with kids at church, and that her daughter cried over useless animals.
“Ledesma mentioned CEPEDA was just in a daze and she did not sense like she comprehended what transpired,” the affidavit reported.
“I just bought frightened,” the mother recalled the defendant declaring immediately after giving birth. “[H]er deal with was purple and didn’t know what to do,” the daughter allegedly explained to her mom with regards to the toddler.
The defendant seemingly repeatedly said that she didn’t know she was pregnant, according to the affidavit.
When she spoke to the law enforcement, Cepeda allegedly said she took a being pregnant examination “3-4 months back,” but the exam was allegedly unfavorable.
The affidavit then lays out Cepeda’s thorough account of the birth of the kid. Cepeda explained she “tried to grab” the baby’s head all through the birthing process and “tried to pull her out, but that did not work.” She asserted that the toddler “fell out” of her when she “stood up” just after squatting for the duration of the approach. The umbilical twine allegedly broke when Cepeda stood up. The newborn “wasn’t moving on her own” and “wasn’t crying,” the defendant claimed she also claimed she “couldn’t” bring herself to decide on the child up and for that reason “left her on the floor,” in accordance to the law enforcement affidavit. Cepeda then allegedly claimed that she “thought” the newborn “might” be ok if she “gave her some time,” so she went to get a shower and prepared to appear again later on.
The police affidavit says Cepeda “appeared to wince in suffering on several instances when a tricky dilemma or significant concern was asked of her.”
Cepeda allegedly explained to the law enforcement that she utilized scissors to slash the rest of the umbilical cord from her physique she also allegedly asserted that the scissors had been under no circumstances around the newborn.
“[A]re you certain?” the police requested on hearing this assertion, in accordance to the affidavit. “I need to have to know what occurred,” an officer inquired.
“[N]o,” the defendant allegedly replied, once more in accordance to the affidavit. “[T]right here is no motive for the child to have any cuts.”
“I did not do it,” the defendant also allegedly mentioned when she was informed by the police that the baby’s overall body confirmed “significant wounds.”
“I did not do that to that newborn,” she also alleged said as to the wounds.
The law enforcement pressed further the affidavit suggests the defendant did not improve her tale. She allegedly stated she “didn’t know” who could have stabbed the baby.
“I could not have accomplished that to the toddler,” the defendant allegedly ongoing. “I was bleeding. I slice the umbilical twine on me and didn’t touch the just one on her, which is all I utilized [the scissors] for.”
The police continued to inquire and even responded when requested about legal counsel that the relatives could safe a lawyer if it wished. Cepeda allegedly stated she advised the law enforcement all she realized.
When questioned about “her coronary heart and mind” for the duration of the birthing method, the defendant allegedly mentioned that she “couldn’t do it,” that is, she “couldn’t be a mother.”
The cause, she asserted, was mainly because she “never informed anybody” and “couldn’t explain to her mom,” in accordance to the affidavit.
But then, when asked “why she would do this,” Cepeda allegedly said “it wasn’t moving.”
“[I]f the baby wasn’t transferring, why would you get the scissors and do this?” the police questioned, once again for every the affidavit. “Was this going to assistance the scenario?”
“[N]o,” the defendant allegedly answered.
“I really don’t know,” the defendant is claimed to have ongoing when questioned “why she would do this with the scissors.”
When the law enforcement questioned Cepeda “how quite a few situations she trapped the scissors into her baby,” the defendant’s mother asked for an attorney, and the law enforcement stopped inquiring concerns, the affidavit states.
According to the affidavit, an autopsy indicated that the stab wounds were both “significant” and deep. The wounds had been allegedly “centered all around the infant’s upper body, rib cage and stomach.” The punctures penetrated the newborn’s coronary heart and lungs, according to the autopsy as it is cited in the police paperwork.
Dr. Michael Burson, the Weld County Coroner, reported that it was his “medical opinion” that the toddler was born alive, the police wrote. Burson cited blood in the newborn’s upper body cavity and bruising all around the wounds as proof to support his assertion assert, the affidavit says. Burson opined that the baby was born alive and died from “multiple sharp drive injuries,” the document proceeds.
The 1st rely of murder on file against Cepeda accuses her of “unlawfully, feloniously, and knowingly” resulting in the loss of life of her little one while “in a posture of have confidence in with respect to the sufferer,” according to a charging doc received by Regulation&Criminal offense. The 2nd count of murder alleges that Cepeda “unlawfully, feloniously, right after deliberation, and with the intent to lead to the demise of a person other than herself, triggered the death of her infant child.”
The charges are alleged violations of Colo. Rev. Stats. §§ 18-3-102(1)(f) and 18-3-102(1)(a), respectively.
The full grievance, the affidavit, and a push release from the DA’s business are all embedded below.
[File photo of police car by Samuel Corum/Getty Images.]
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