Law&Crime Sidebar - Texas Teen Dumped Baby in Dumpster After Giving Birth Behind Taco Truck: Cops

Episode Date: July 31, 2024

A Houston judge raised 18-year-old Everilda Cux-Ajtzalam’s bond to $200,000 as she faces a charge of abandoning her newborn. The baby boy was found wrapped up in a plastic bag inside a dumpster, with the placenta and umbilical cord in the bag as well. Cux-Ajtzalam allegedly told police that she did it because she didn’t want her boyfriend to break up with her. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses the case with Gary Mitchell, attorney for Alexee Trevizo, the New Mexico woman facing similar charges after allegedly putting her own newborn into a hospital trash can.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. We discovered a dead baby in the bathroom. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. Thank you. I didn't know. Nancy, I told you about this. I just asked you, baby, to tell me the truth. Two different teen girls, two different states, accused of giving birth, and then immediately throwing the babies away, literally.

A teen in New Mexico stands accused of putting her baby in a hospital trash can, while the other allegedly put her newborn in a dumpster. One child survived, the other did not. We're speaking with the attorney for one of the girls about the intricacies of trying a case like this and how his client. client is fighting back. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. A passerby in Houston, Texas discovered something horrible last week. A baby tied up inside of a plastic bag and hidden away inside a dumpster. Emergency responders rushed to the scene, pulling the newborn

out. This small baby boy still had his umbilical cord attached, and luckily, He survived this. I mean, he was just born that day. According to KHOU 11 News in Houston, the baby boy is doing well. This is all thanks to the witness who heard that child crying. Thank goodness for that. Houston police, they ended up arresting 18-year-old Everelda Cook's Atsalam, locked her up on a charge of abandoning a child without intent to return. My understanding, that is a third-degree felony that's punishable by up to two to 10 years in prison. She was given a bond of $90,000, but this week, the judge, judge increased that bond to $200,000, so as of now, Everilda is still behind bars. The bond documents kind of give us a short summary of what police believe happened here, and it reads, quote, D, this is meaning the defendant, alleged to have given birth on the ground behind the food truck where she works. Dee put the child, placenta, an umbilical cord into a trash bag, took the trash bag to a dumpster, and left the child in the dumpster tied inside the trash bag.

A passer-by later heard the baby crying, called 911, and recovered the child. HFD took the child to the hospital. Dee alleged to have told police that she had no other choice because she didn't want her boyfriend to break up with her. And when police found the baby, he appeared to still be wet from the birth. That's how new this is. And the bond paperwork also points to a very damning piece of evidence with this short line, quote, event caught on surveillance video. Now, one of the reasons for the bond increase, according to court documents, is that

Everilda has no ties to the United States and her immigration status is in question. She had an ice hole placed on her. She's originally from Guatemala, so clearly this is an important issue here. And this case, as we talk about it, it may likely remind you of another one that we spoke about recently here on Sidebar, another infamous incident that happened at a hospital out in New Mexico. 19-year-old Alexei Treviso went to a hospital in New Mexico in the early morning hours of January 27, 2023, complaining of back pain.

And when hospital staff did tests, they discovered Alexi was pregnant. And those results allegedly hadn't been shared with Alexi yet. This is before she went to the bathroom. So that's a key point here. And an arrest warrant lays out the timeline of what happened. So let's get into this. At 1.39 a.m. Alexi went to the public restroom in the emergency room. At 140, a staff member checked on her. Then at 149, she checked on her again. Staff repeatedly checked on her until 157 when Alexi finally left the bathroom. And medical staff explained the situation to police when they arrived. We did a pregnancy test on her. She showed positive. She was denying that she had sex. Then she said she had to go to the bathroom. She went to the bathroom. She was in there for, with her.

quite a while we kept knocking on the door finally we got her to open the door and there was blood everywhere she was cleaning it up so we took her back to the room and I was afraid that she knew she was pregnant she had done something to herself so the doctor started doing a vaginal exam on her we had the lady come to clean the bathroom she put the baby in the trash can and then she put another clean liner over the top of it so they look when they looked in there it looked there was no trash in there But it was underneath the clean bag. The baby's dead.

Okay, we have him in trauma too, but she killed the kid. Yeah. How old was the baby? I don't know. It's full term. She just had it in the bathroom was what happened. And then she, whatever she did, I don't know. She's going to lie.

She wouldn't tell us she's pregnant. She's been lying the whole time. Police body cams, by the way, they were rolling when the doctor told Alexi and her mom that they knew what had happened. We discovered a dead baby in the bathroom. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. He came out and I didn't know what to do it.

Lexi, I told you about this. I just asked you baby to tell me the truth. It was not prior to my baby. What did you do to it? Okay, stop right here. Stop, stop. Number one priority, guys. Number one priority is she just had a baby?

I don't know if she's delivered the placenta. She's bleeding significantly. Yeah. Like how big is a baby? It's full term. What? Nine months? Nothing was crying. Let's see.

Have you watched the news of the girls that, what they do to their babies and what they go to jail? Let them was crying. Um, in terms, 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. And nothing was crying. It came out with that baby. I know, I know. But the baby's going to have to be taken for autopsy and, you know, be an investigator and everything. I'm really sorry, guys.

Now, Alexei has said she didn't know she was pregnant, that the baby was a stillborn. An examination showed, though, that the baby was breathing when it was born. So was Alexei Treviso telling the truth. Now, this apparent confession is at the center of a legal battle because before Alexi's trial for first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, which was supposed to start next month, and though that doesn't seem that's going to be happening, Alexi's defense attorney Gary Mitchell, who we're going to be talking to in a minute, argued at a hearing that the video of Alexi going to and from the bathroom, as well as the video of this alleged confession, that it should

be thrown out. Mitchell told the judge that Alexi's doctor-patient privilege was violated when the hospital staff turned over the tapes. The state argued that there was no HIPAA violation, that whatever rights Alexi may have had, she waived them because she decided to speak with medical staff with her mother and police in the room. Court documents show the state also argued that when Treviso allegedly admitted to the doctor that the baby came out of her and she wasn't sure what to do, she wasn't in police custody. She was allowed to leave. However, the judge in this case ultimately agreed with the defense.

Yes, ruled that the evidence should be suppressed, meaning the jury will not see this at trial. The district attorney's office, though, is now asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to step in to overturn that decision. So we will see which way that shakes up. Again, I'm going to talk about this in a second. But I will let you know that after her arrest in May of 2023, Alexi was given pretrial release. She was allowed to go to prom and was planning to walk a graduation, but the school ended up asking her not to attend. She has also been attending college afterwards. Hey, so we want to take a minute to thank our incredible sponsor.

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You only pay them if you win. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. So I'm joined right now by Gary Mitchell. This is Alexi's attorney. Gary, thanks so much for coming on to speak with me not only about Alexi's case, but this other's case. And we're obviously going to get into both. But I want to just talk about this Texas case first.

Because it does have these similarities to Alexi's case, right? What was your reaction when you heard about it? Well, another teenage girl without much help tries to face a major catastrophe in their lives. And that's the one thing that people forget is that we're not dealing with adults here. We're dealing with young people who have never had to face these consequences before. And then they're having to deal with them. So it's a major issue in their family and in a major issue in their lives. And I always tell lawyers who do these cases, you know, quietly get your client evaluated, find out what you're dealing with, find out the maturity, find out the education, find out the intelligence.

This is not the first case I've seen or even covered. One of the biggest ones was the Skylar Richardson's case, again about a young woman who was involved in the same thing. She was found not guilty in her case, but I want to ask you about this one in particular. How would you defend Ms. Atsalaam here? Well, first of all, I'm going to find out exactly what the family situation is. Find out what kind of stressor she's under, find out how she's educated, what her mental capacity is, and find out particularly if she tried to get any help from anybody and was declined that help. You know, in some of these cases, they try to get help, and people turn them away.

And now with society like it is in some states, that's a real problem. And being able to think that you can go and get help from a doctor or perhaps a nurse or a midwife. And you find out in that state that you're likely to get prosecuted if you go and say anything. So you try to deal with it. and they don't have the capabilities of dealing with it. There's a part of these cases, it's almost the sympathy factor for a jury. And I think it works both ways. You could say someone was young, confused, didn't know what to do, didn't have the help

that was provided versus others who will say, this is heartless. How could you do that? So how do you approach cases like that? Because I could see it both ways. Well, you've got to try to get your clients, if I'm representing. sending the defendant in these cases, you've got to get their story told to the jury in a sympathetic way. And you've got to put those jurors walking in their shoes or walking in their stand, so to speak. And to do that is going to require a lot of work about from teachers, from classmates, from family,

and probably some sociologists certainly talking about what is the nature of, their culture and what kind of stresses are placed upon them. For example, classically, in these cases, we look for an aunt or we look for a grandmother. And if they don't have an aunt or a grandmother, then they've got real problems to deal with by themselves. Because more than things, in this case, in this case, the one that I mentioned in Texas, if there's surveillance footage, is that tough to talk about that in front of a jury? Well, not anymore because everything's surveilled. You know, between Facebook, between all the social media, between what you and I are doing right now, between all of the ring cameras on doorbells, all of the security cameras, we expect to have some footage somewhere along the line.

And I think people have learned to understand and appreciate that to a certain extent. Doesn't change the mindset, doesn't change the angst, doesn't change the angst, doesn't change the desperation. Right. No, I understand that. And I guess the interesting aspect about these cases, and I think they're almost unpredictable in a way that each one's a little bit different. There was something you said about telling the story. I always say in self-defense cases that it's almost necessary for the defendant to take the stand to explain why they need to use reasonable, use deadly force. Do you think in these kinds of cases when you're talking about young mothers, and obviously it's their decision if they want to take the stand, but do you think it's sometimes necessary for them to tell their side of the story about why they did this and take the stand and testify? You know, I'm sort of a long ranger among criminal defense attorneys when it comes to that because I think they have to almost always testify because if they don't, then you don't get the understanding that jurors will get from watching somebody or listening to somebody

talk or seeing the struggles that they went through to get where they were. And in this particular instance, I certainly think that that's going to be necessary at some point in time because it's hard for a mother of a daughter like that to explain or to a boyfriend to explain. It's far easier if a jury can get it straight from the person that it's happening to. And you've got to put, we have a country Western saying out here that you've got to walk a mile of their boots to understand what they're going through. And so I always tell jurors, you've got to walk with them you got to understand what they're going through and when you understand that then you can make a judgment but not until right right well that brings me now to alexie's case and i want to

talk a little bit more about this so gary what is the current status of the state's attempt to have the new mexico supreme court overturn the suppression of evidence ruling has the court even indicated that they want to listen to this issue that they even want to take up this case where are we with that well we won't know until the supreme court makes a decision on that the case has been appealed so we're stayed right now. The state has in New Mexico an automatic right to appeal on a suppression type issue where the evidence has been suppressed

like it was in this case because of the doctor's betrayal of the doctor-patient privilege in this case, the hospital's betrayal of a hospital patient privilege. And frankly, the police officer's failure to even warn Alexi of her Miranda warnings and tell her she had a right not to talk to anybody. All of them failed her. All the adults in this case failed her.

It was a sad comment, and the judge understands that. I mean, this stuff was videotape. We had all the medical records that we gave to the judge. We had the fact that the judge is a learned individual herself, particularly when it comes to medical training. She has some medical training. So the judge in this case understood exactly what was going on with the timetable and what was going on with the failures by the hospital

and the doctor and such. So that's the situation we have. Unlike other cases, Lexi went to the hospital for help. She didn't go there to hide anything. She went there for help. She didn't know. And I know a lot of people on the internet want to say, well, she had to have known. No, she didn't have to know. One in 2,500 women that are pregnant are getting ready to get birth, don't know. that they were pregnant. I mean, it's an astounding statistic. A lot of women, a large percentage of women, by the fifth month, you not know that you're pregnant. So it's not unusual. And certainly for somebody that's a teenager that doesn't have all the training necessary to understand a biological circumstances of giving birth wouldn't have that knowledge. So she went there for help.

she didn't get it and then she got betrayed by everybody all the adults involved in this case and i say betrayed because i mean they should have known better they should have told her she was pregnant one two they should have checked and seen how close to deliver she was that's uh just a basic requirement of emergency room medicine and when they didn't they shouldn't be able to come in there and say all right we need to use all her reactions to this and uh try to punish her and and convict your first-degree murder based on this evidence or lack thereof or evidence that's not in good faith, not Mirandized, and not in violation of privileges. If this evidence is not allowed in trial, is there going to be a trial? Do you think the

prosecution moves forward with the case? I hope not. I hope that's it. I hope this ends it. It should end it because otherwise we're just going to be trying to try a case based upon hearsay gossip rumor and speculation gets some conjecture and that's never a wise thing to do in the american justice system in other words you're saying the whole prosecution's case against alexi is built upon her alleged statements that she made at the hospital no no other evidence really yeah no other evidence there is no other evidence it's what happened at the hospital that's the extent of it there's uh i mean they we've interviewed lots of witnesses we've talked to lots of people the boyfriend didn't know uh none of her classmates knew despite what you may read on the internet

there's been nobody come forward under oath and say hey she knew and i believe and she and she passed a polygraph test to keep that in mind that she didn't she thought the baby was not alive that's a that's a huge deal here wait but but but real quick would those polygraphs be allowed at trial They are in New Mexico. We're the only state in the union that allows them, and we do allow them. They're done in accordance with our rules, and this one was done by one of the foremost filigophers in the state. I think the foremost prolifer in the state. And I did an excellent job, and she passed resoundingly. So, you know, the fact that she even took one is impressive, but the fact that she passed it, I mean, she's just, in some ways, very, naive, but in other ways, just an honest, hardworking young woman who found herself in a jam

and went to the right people for help, but the right people didn't give it. By the way, Gary, if this Supreme Court of New Mexico decides to take up this case and listen to it, when is the earliest this trial would happen? Next year sometime. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Now, on a separate point, right, my understanding is there was a lawsuit that was filed against the hospital alleging that the treatment that Alexis, he got, that is what caused the stillbirth. What can you tell us about that? And if that will factor into the criminal case in any way? It won't factor into the criminal case. And yes,

there's been a lawsuit based upon medical malpractice filed and based upon a violation of HIPAA, based upon a violation of the privilege, based upon the giving out of all of her records, including her social security numbers. I mean, all of that confidential information was just given out and for the life of me I can never understand why as doctors and hospitals we should know better I mean but it was just passed out like it was candy and everybody in the world seemed to have it not you know I say that everybody in the world I mean we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people that have it so that's the situation we find ourselves in so I didn't hesitate I just said wait a second this is wrong you guys were negligent in the way you

handle it. You waited 50-some-odd minutes to even tell her that she would, well, you didn't tell her she was pregnant. You let her go to the bathroom and have a baby in the bathroom. And you didn't think that maybe, wait a second, maybe the reason she has to go to the bathroom is she's getting ready to give birth. I mean, that's a classic indication. By the way, just so we clarify this before we wrap things up, what was the reason that they didn't tell her or allegedly didn't tell her? I don't know. To this day, honestly, that's a great. question i'm going to write that down after you and i conclude this interview and make sure i ask it i want to know the answer to that why didn't you tell her i mean why was why are they by the way

are they denying it are they saying no we did tell her no they've i got him under oath saying we didn't tell her the nurse that was taking care of us said we didn't tell her the physician that was taken care of us that we didn't tell her they never told her well it's an interesting case it's It's a tragic case. It's a sad case, but I've covered these before, and they can go in very different ways. And particularly, I agree with you, Gary, if the state can't introduce that evidence, I would think they may reconsider moving forward with it, because that's really the crux of their case. But we shall see. We have these two different situations in two different states. We wanted your perspective. Gary Mitchell, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it.

My pleasure. Enjoy your day. All right, everybody. That's all we have for right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. or Spotify.