Teenage mother accused of fatally stabbing newborn

McALLEN -- A teenage mother who first claimed her infant daughter was snatched in broad daylight Thursday is now suspected of stabbing the baby to death.

The supposed kidnapping-turned-homicide sent the McAllen Police Department on an exhaustive citywide search to locate a man who would never be found.

"We had our suspicions from the onset," Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "When the call comes in, we're all over this area within a couple of minutes and ... after we comb the area we find the baby in the same area we had been at."

Rodriguez said investigators believe Mexican national Angelica Gutierrez, 19, killed 15-day-old Gabriella Corona a day after the baby was released from Rio Grande Regional Hospital.

Police gave no motive for the crime but said they had enough evidence to charge Gutierrez with capital murder today. Investigators detained her for questioning Thursday afternoon and formally arrested her before the news conference.

Gutierrez was arraigned this morning at 10:30 a.m. at the McAllen municipal court. Judge Charlie Ochoa gave her a $1 million bond.

Police also were questioning Gutierrez's boyfriend, Arturo Corona, of McAllen, in connection with his daughter's death.

Gutierrez initially tried to mislead police, claiming the infant was kidnapped Thursday morning from the arms of her aunt in front of the Women, Infants and Children office at 220 S. Bicentennial Blvd., Rodriguez said.

Police initially received a call just after 11 a.m. Thursday regarding a robbery at the WIC office.

When officers arrived, they were told a man tried to rob Gutierrez and her sister but instead tore the infant from the arms of Gutierrez's aunt and fled the scene, Rodriguez said. About 20 minutes later, officers found the dead infant's body beneath some shrubs on the 200 block of South 20th Street - just one block west of where officers first responded.

Rodriguez said investigators discovered a knife near the location where the baby's body was left.

"We think (the stabbing) happened within the hour of the time we got the call," Rodriguez said.

Maria Ramirez, 55, works at nearby Johnson's Ropa Usada, 1917 Beaumont Ave., and said she was the first to discover the baby's motionless body in the bushes.

"It was horrible," she said in Spanish. "I never thought I would see that."

Ramirez and others who work at the used clothing store said they did not see anyone dump the baby's body outside the store, which is situated less than one block south of Vaches Lounge, 114 S. 20th St., the location of a May 21 shooting that left a man in critical condition.

When asked whether anyone witnessed the baby's stabbing, Rodriguez said during the news conference that police are "not speak-ing to that right now."

Dozens of police officers had locked down area elementary schools and cordoned off the area near the WIC clinic by midday. They searched the area, looking for clues related to the apparent kidnapping and homicide.

A helicopter circled in the sky as women stood behind the police line with their young children, watching as officers loaded the baby's tiny body onto a stretcher.

Police searched the city throughout the afternoon looking for the person responsible for the stabbing, but called off the search late in the afternoon and called the news conference shortly before 5 p.m.

Family members said after the news conference that all they knew before the gathering was that baby Gabriella had been kidnapped. They learned at the same time as local news media that police believed Gutierrez had murdered her newborn child.

Raquel Acosta, Gabriella's grandmother, burst out in tears and wailed at the news as police continued to field questions about the day's investigation.

Police have not ruled out the possibility of charging anyone else in connection with the baby's death, Rodriguez said.

Gabriella's stabbing is the third killing in the city this year.
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Jared Taylor and Sean Gaffney cover law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach Taylor at (956) 683-4439 and Gaffney at (956) 683-4434.
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La Frontera reporter Martha Leticia Hernández contributed to this report.