Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Woman Gave Birth in Motel Bathtub Then Tossed Baby in Trash: Cops

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Zinnia Hernandez, 22, faces an attempted murder charge after police in Columbus, Georgia say she threw her newborn baby boy in a dumpster. Hernandez faces two felony charges and two misdemeanors in the incident. A person passing by heard the baby crying from the dumpster and called 911. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy goes through the disturbing case with attorney Meg Strickler in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code CRIMEFIX at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/crimefixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Meg Strickler https://x.com/megstricklerProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A young mother is accused of doing the unthinkable to her newborn baby boy. I'll go through the case of Zinia Hernandez and the charges that have her sitting behind bars. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Mothers are supposed to care for their children and love them, even very young mothers. But in Georgia, a young mother is accused of literally throwing her newborn baby boy away like he was a piece of trash. The thought of doing a thing like that, it would make most women gasp, shudder, cringe, you name it. At least, I hope it would. This case is out of Columbus, Georgia. That's about 110 miles. south of Atlanta. The population less than 2002,000. On September 2nd, that was the Tuesday after Labor Day, someone called 911 after hearing a baby crying from a dumpster. That dumpster was in the parking lot of the budgetel inn and suites. It's a motel in Columbus. Detectives with the Columbus

Police Department's special victims unit, they went to this motel to investigate and they ended up finding 22-year-old Zinia Hernandez who was staying at the motel. Officers took Hernandez into custody and they charged her with attempted murder, abandonment of a child, those are felonies, cruelty to children in the first degree and reckless conduct. Hernandez appeared in court recently for a preliminary hearing and a detective testified about tracking Hernandez down at the motel after going through hours of surveillance footage. So I asked her, we could step inside and talk to her if she allowed us into the residents. I asked her if she knew why we were there.

She stated probably because of the baby being in the dumpster was her guests, told her that, you know, there's not very many white and blue trash bags. She stated she understood and at that point paused and stated she was not going to lie to us. She did it. The detective also testified that Hernandez told him that she gave birth to the baby boy in the bathtub of the motel room and then went and did some laundry. And when she came back to the room, she put the newborn baby boy in a trash bag and then put him in the dumpster. The detective said Hernandez told them she was afraid of being on her own and raising two children since

she already had a one-year-old. The detective went on to say that Hernandez wanted to have an abortion, but she couldn't afford it. So her solution was to put the newborn baby in the trash. Can you imagine? In Georgia, there is a safe haven law, which allows a parent to turn over a baby to a safe place, such as a medical facility, like a hospital, a doctor's office, a police department, or a fire department without consequences or facing criminal charges. They can do that up until the baby is 30 days old. And those places have a sign like the one you're looking at right now. Now, Georgia does not currently have baby boxes. They don't allow those right now. but there is a bill making its way through the Georgia House. It's HB. 350 that would allow safe haven baby boxes in the state. There's also a Facebook group advocating for that bill, and it has nearly 800 members.

So how is this baby boy doing now? That's the real question. And has there been any further medical evaluation on injuries, this infant I've sustained? I believe the current prognosis is the baby's fine. I just needed additional oxygen at his point. Thank goodness. Somebody heard that baby crying because if they hadn't, that baby boy would have died likely of starvation or dehydration and we ended up in a landfill. It would have been horrible. Georgia's Department of Children and Family Services took custody of that baby boy. I cover a lot of really scary crime stories here on crime fix. And if it's taught me anything, it's that privacy and personal safety absolutely cannot be compromised, especially when it comes to your personal info online.

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an annual plan. So to talk about this horrific case, I want to bring in Meg Strickler. She is a criminal defense attorney in the Atlanta area. Meg, these cases, I've covered a number of them, sadly, where young women give birth. A lot of times it's teenage girls who give birth and then try to hide the pregnancy by throwing the baby away or like sometimes killing the baby or they say it's stillborn and then it's buried somewhere or thrown in the trash. This is not that. This is a 22-year-old woman who gave birth in a hotel room and then is accused of throwing the baby in the trash. My God, your thoughts? The fact that when you hear about this story, the person who called 911 heard the baby's cries, that one just really pierces my soul. To think about this baby

for the rest of its life is going to be like, my mom threw me away. I mean, the trauma of that, by definition, is insane. She also has a one-year-old, this young lady. And she was like, I couldn't afford two kids. You know how many people go through fertility treatments to try to have children? We have a safe haven law here in Georgia where you can abandon the child for up to 30 days so that you can go to a fire station, a hospital, and you can give the baby with no repercussions if you simply just give the baby this beautiful young soul who has absolutely no defenses a chance at life. And that's what gets me. And these safe haven laws, I mean, they're pretty widely publicized and have been since they've been, you know, since they started.

I mean, I think these have been in place for a really long time. And you would think, even if you go to the doctor or something like that, think of an alternative other than putting a live living baby that you just gave birth to, placenta and an umbilical cord still attached. So she had to cut the cord. I'm assuming by herself. And then your solution is not go, not go to the hospital, not go down to the firehouse, not call EMTs and say, you know what, I just had a baby and I can't take care of this baby. Here you go. Throw it in the trash. I am confounded by that. I am, especially when you've got all that time, the many months and months to think about it. And there are so many people out there, as you mentioned, who want babies,

who want to have babies and can't have babies by themselves. They have to go through fertility treatment, or maybe it just doesn't work. Yeah, exactly. And I know Columbus. I do a lot of work down in the Middle District of Georgia, which is a federal district. And there's a fire station fairly close to that hotel. I think that hurts even further. And also what hurts this case is she already has had a child. She's already gone through pregnancy and already had a baby. She knew this was coming. Now, a teenager, sometimes you can kind of almost offend it. I'm not, but you can kind of almost offend their mindset. They're so young, a teenager. They can't comprehend the concept of being pregnant and have babies. I'm not defending it, but that is sometimes what they're

thinking. But at 22, with a second child, this one blows my mind. I have a lot of trouble with this one. And I did notice that some people are saying with the safe haven law that we should have a thing called a baby box where it's much more anonymous. And there is a house bill right now out there that, you know, we could have that in our state. We don't have that in our state. So we have to do a face-to-face encounter and give the baby to someone else. And so there's also some, it's 23 states, I believe, have that concept. And maybe that could have helped here. I doubt it. I doubt it. I don't think that's what hindered here. Could there be mental health issues? Could there be drug issues? I think drug issues might be the winner. And the thing that really kills me as well,

and this one makes me emotional, defects. What's our family and children's services institution here in the state of Georgia is so overwhelmed. They're going to get involved. But is something going to change? Is that one-year-old going to be protected? I wonder. yeah it makes you wonder and so that that agency took custody of the baby thank god the baby lived we don't know what her level of prenatal care was if she she's saying to the cops she couldn't afford an abortion i don't know if she could even afford prenatal care i don't know if she's on medicaid i don't know what that situation was but at least the baby is hopefully in the custody in care of a person who is caring for him, who's a baby boy, you know, my thing is, too,

maybe there are some mental health issues here, maybe there are some drug issues, but still, I mean, it's almost like, well, I don't want anybody else to have the baby. Yeah. That's my baby. I'm going to do what I want with that baby. I mean, was that at play here? I think young, uneducated, poor, lack of resources, all of those things have an impact here. It doesn't excuse the situation by any stretch.

But that's why we have the safe haven thing. We know that there's all these anonymous things that can occur, meaning, like I started to say, she could be, because when I read the budget teller, whatever the name of the hotel was, you know, what's going on in those hotels, we all know, okay? And so could she be involved in that scene? and could that baby then be not have a father that she knows? And I'm not any way implying this is occurring here. I'm just saying with my career and what I see,

those kinds of hotels have drug trafficking and human trafficking all the time. All right, let's not lie. All right? We see it all of the time. I can't tell you how many drug trafficking cases I've seen in that region where there's stuff going on. Okay? So I do think there's a possibility of drugs being there.

But then that does not defend. And I don't think D-Fact is going to give her back the baby. I was worried about the one-year-old. Okay? The baby were gone. I think they're going to terminate her parental rights on that one. She's charged with some severe felonies. To be honest, I was a little surprised she got bond.

A lot of rural counties were more punitive. Okay, so Ms. Kogi County, I was surprised they gave her bond. I think it was like $20,000. $20,000. Yeah, that's kind of low. For attempted murder. Uh-huh. Yes. Criminal attempted murder times two and cruelty of children times too. Those are usually really harsh charges. So why we get $20,000 bond? I don't know. And then the charges could be increased when we get to the point of indictment or they could be decreased when we get to indictment. I don't know how they would be decreased. I mean that. I don't know how. There's no, I'm a criminal defense lawyer. I should be defending this. I'm having a lot of trouble finding. anything except the part when we get to sentencing, we could have some mitigating parts,

the drugs, the bad background, these kinds of things, lack of resources, could mitigate. It's not a defense. There's a big difference. Well, and I guess maybe a mitigating factor could be that when the cops came knocking on the door, she didn't deny it, she didn't lie, she didn't try to hide it. She just said, I couldn't afford an obligation. abortion. So this is what I did. This is what the detective said in court. I'm sure he was just like floored. Like what the heck, you know, I'm sure that the word he used was stronger than that. But that's what's so stunning. I mean, I guess that could be a mitigating factor that when confronted, she didn't lie. 100% that actually is we would call that cooperation we call that cooperation in any storyline is that I don't care what the storyline is big bad or small or little whatever is as soon as you're

confronted if you are immediately like I did this that is a good thing so that is something I would argue and it is a good thing her excuse about I couldn't afford it not so good but she did say I'm not going to lie I did this that's what the officer testified to at the hearing and that is good. That is something I would utilize because she's like, I'm not going to mess with you police officers when you're talking to me. You're asking me direct questions. I'm going to answer the direct questions. And that is a good thing. I give her credit for that. So you're a criminal defense attorney. You've already said that. You said you're having a hard time defending this. She's facing incredibly serious charges, attempted murder, cruelty to children, some other charges as well. This case lands in your life. lap of what do you what do you do with it meg you you go through it obviously you're going to i'm sure try to get her admission thrown out i i don't see any grounds for that because he he knocked on the door and she said it it was free and voluntary he wasn't in custody correct that one's

free involuntary that's coming in there's no way i mean i might file a motion to suppress but that's a free and voluntary statement she was not in custody she was free to go and i say free to go because in my mind I'm arguing Miranda rights issues is, are we really free to go when an officer standing there in front of you? But I don't win that argument. I mean, emotionally and reality-based, if an officer standing there, I would not want to be feeling, I don't feel free to go. But a lot of case law says otherwise. So that part, it's going to come in. What is really important in these cases is medical records, the background, like you said, the prenatal care, just filling out the tapestry of the facts of this case, both good and bad and ugly, is what I do today.

I go ahead and subpoena all the medical records. It's going to take forever to get them because it just takes work. So it's going to take probably a year or so before this case is indicted and gets to trial because we need to both sides, the prosecution as well, need to fully, fully investigate the medical records, how she had birth, gave birth, excuse me, at the hotel. Also, there's surveillance footage. I want to see that. I want to see, is it good video, is a bad video?

In other words, is it clear? What do we see? And I mean that. What do we see with respect to her walking over to this dumpster and putting this baby into the dumpster? That's important. I know it sounds horrible, but the facts, all the specific facts are what pivotal here in a defense.

What kind of freaks me out about this is you bringing up the fact that she's in a hotel that there could be things going on like drug trafficking, sex trafficking. It could be. We don't know for sure, but that could be going on. God, how often does this happen? I mean, maybe this happens more often than we realize. I mean, because we see these cases pop up in the news.

That terrifies me. Are people doing this more often than we realize, like, tossing babies in the trash when they don't want them or harming them and, you know, killing them? disposing of them when they don't want a pregnancy instead of giving them up at a safe haven, giving them up for adoption, or getting an abortion? I mean, is this happening more than we would realize? I know we don't have any probably statistical data on that because you can't confess to that without being charged with a crime. Well, with respect to the safe haven aspect of it, I have no idea. I would hope and assume that that is creating more health.

babies and creating more healthy lives, period. With respect to having a baby in a hotel, I've given birth. The thought about doing that somewhere without medical assistance blows my brain. Now, we know that can occur because, you know, childbirths happen for ages. But the thought of that, who else was there? Is there anyone else involved with this? That one I question. That one I question.

Because you can't do that all on your own because, I mean, you're not feeling so good after you have that baby. I mean, I just, the whole thing, there's so many more detail. that I think we need that will, I use the word tapestry because it'll, it'll draw the whole storyline and give us more depth to then make a real accurate assessment. It does not negate what occurred here. This was her baby, dumpster, and the baby was alive and crying. That does not negate it, but it will flesh out for us to decide what an adequate and appropriate punishment would be in this case. Because she is facing decades in prison.

She certainly is. I want to kind of circle back to the safe haven, the baby box that you mentioned. They have those where I live. They have those in a lot of states. And I've actually interviewed a woman who runs that program, Monica Kelsey. And she kind of works. She was an abandoned baby. Like she had somebody, though, that took care of her and adopted her and gave her a loving

home and she found that out and she said, you know, I'm going to set these boxes up and try to help young women who, you know, don't want their babies or can't take care of their babies and help the babies in the process. And so you don't, you said there's a bill in Georgia right now to get those in Georgia. I mean, I'm a little surprised they don't already have them down there because to me it seems like, you know, Georgia's down in the Bible Belt and you would think that that safe haven baby box would kind of go hand in hand with with you know people have being very religious and wanting to save babies and things of that nature so i'm a little surprised that you guys don't already have that down there i'm with you i think that the the most we can do

for the human life is the most important here and so if we can expedite and make that happen it's a little shocking that we don't have it so if we can create more anonymity Okay? Because remember, I'm just going to put this out there. Let's think this would be an abusive situation where there's a lot of shame. I'm not saying that's in this case. Okay, I'm just saying in general. If this was some sort of abusive situation and there's a lot of shame, you don't want to give that baby and have to interact with another human to have to hand-to-hand baby to some other human. That's what our law is right now. The baby box negates that. You can put it somewhere where you don't need to interact with another human. And I do think that would be something that, Why isn't it here? No idea. Why isn't it a law yet? No idea. And if you're here in Georgia, reach out to your senators. It's out there as a bill. Let's get it passed. I don't see any reason why it isn't here. What benefit to not have? Give me one reason why we shouldn't have it. Yeah, it seems like there's no reason at all. So Meg, you said you think it'll take a year to get this indicted and get it to trial. What's your prediction on this case? I mean, they've got her

dead to rights, at least from where I'm sitting right now, and we're very early on in this case. Do you see this even going to trial? No, I don't see it going to trial period. I do see it becoming into some sort of resolution that works for everybody involved, okay? Going back to the tapestry, the mitigating part is going to be very pivotal. That's going to move the needle for the judge and the prosecutor as to what's going to be indicted, and more importantly, what's pled to. She is dead to write, so to speak, pardon the pun, that, you know, we have her on video putting her in the baby boy in the dumpster. Nothing we can do about that. But I do think the mitigating the young age, you know, poor, no support system, you know, potentially uneducated.

We don't know. All those things are going to influence. And the reason I'm pretty confident of that is the fact that the judge already gave this young woman bond indicates there's some more to the story that none of us know, but that is known, period. That's my guess. I'm just, I always gauge the cases here in Georgia. The first person, whenever I get a call from any perspective of clients, it's like the first question I ask, how much was your bond? And then that usually, in almost 30 years of doing this, determines the severity of the

case the whole time through. Yeah. So maybe the judge is like, this is just a sad, pathetic. Correct. Case with some mental health and maybe drug issues, potentially. and maybe locking her up and throwing away the key is not the answer. I do think she'll get some prison, but I agree with you. Throwing away the key is not going to happen.

I can say that already. Well, we'll keep an eye on it. It's super sad, very sad, horrible. But thank God that baby is okay. Meg Strickler, thank you so much. Of course. Thank you. The judge set Hernandez's bail at $20,000.

That was $5,000 for each count she faces, again in Georgia. And in many states, babies can be surrendered legally. at hospitals and police stations and firehouses. There are 20 states right now that allow those baby boxes where babies can be placed anonymously in order to surrender them safely so they can end up in a good place. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.