[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 9-1-1 where is your emergency hello 9-1-1 yeah so we just found the baby in the trash behind uh uh damn can't think straight all right [ __ ] before childbirth a mother's womb is the fetus's home in a healthy pregnancy that home is a safe soothing and cozy environment that supplies all the unborn babies needs mother and fetus have ample time to bond and this bond is widely accepted as sacred and unbreakable but on rare occasions that bond does break and mothers may make terrible decisions when that happens how much leniency if any should be extended to the youngest offenders in a 2012 ruling the united states supreme court said young offenders should rarely receive a sentence of life imprisonment without parole although the supreme court ruling limits the use of life without parole the united states remains the only nation that sentences people to life without parole for crimes committed before turning 18. in this video we explore the case of a teenage mother alexis avila who is awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder or child abuse resulting in great bodily harm although she reached the age of maturity in new mexico by the time of the alleged criminal act and is therefore legally considered an adult youth is sometimes a mitigating factor in sentencing therefore as a young adult the question remains if found guilty how much leniency if any should society extend to the most youthful offenders to begin let's examine the facts of this case alexis avila is an 18 year old hobbes new mexico resident who lived at home with her mother she was a student at hobbs high school where 100 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and only 30 percent of students are proficient in reading based on the most recent state testing performance when alexis was not studying she enjoyed posting on social media and having the occasional night out with friends however after one such evening at a friend's birthday party in july 2021 an altercation at her home caused her mother to call 9-1-1 communication authority this is erica come here this is martin i think the police officer well my daughter was at a team fan apparently her boyfriend hit her they punched her in the face and her cousin and the boyfriend or a friend or whatever got into a fight and if he did clench her then i want to press charges who's who's yelling ma'am why is saying who's saying get off of mia her brother is trying to control her but she's just acting crazy hobbs police arrived and obtained statements but no criminal charges were filed for the incident in august alexis and her then boyfriend a minor allegedly involved in the july altercation ended their 18-month relationship unfortunately for alexis the adversity continued as she dropped out of high school in december then three weeks later the unimaginable happened in a shopping center parking lot in hobbs new mexico chad is it bringing me the goddamn press yes ma'am okay the middle of the mall behind the mall the husband afraid okay is it clothed with is does the baby have any clothes on yes it is making noise okay do you have a blanket and he is still alive i believe he looks pretty good okay do you have a blanket or something you can wrap him in right uh-huh do you have a blanket or something you can wrap him in yes ma'am he goes in a blanket okay can i have your name huh can i have your name please he looks like he's in good health that's him okay can i have your name do you still guys umbilical cord she said uh i don't it's a card you'll have to wait the passenger's moving or the drivers moving his truck but no hold on one second ambulance workers treated the newborn at the scene before transporting him to lubbock hospital when doctors assessed the baby they found signs of hypothermia doctors ordered a blood transfusion and placed the infant on a feeding tube and oxygen which helped to stabilize him back at the police station detectives contacted the owner of the rig outfitters supply store to see if they had any surveillance video the owner confirmed there was footage and gave it to authorities upon reviewing the footage police observed the following investigators ran the license plate for the white volkswagen and successfully traced it back to avila's parents police immediately went to avila's home and made contact with her parents the parents confirmed it was their daughter who drove the vehicle at the time the infant was abandoned since alexis was sleeping when the police arrived her parents agreed to bring her to the police station for questioning upon arrival alexis was escorted to an interview room where she was isolated for 20 minutes until the interview began [Music] [Applause] [Applause] all right so mine's down i'm daniel fez i'm an investigator here with the hospice department right what is your name alexis alexis what is your full name alexa okay [Applause] so before i do ask you any questions okay um i do posse proposing procedure i read everybody otherwise it doesn't mean anything other than me making you aware of your rights and you understanding you're right does that make sense okay do you need any medical attention though before we start no are you okay yeah okay you know what day of the week it is and stuff today friday okay all right so i know there's a lot okay to talk about and i just want to ask you you know why you think you're here what led us to us being here all right obviously i do know information and the last thing i want to do is you know to start up on the wrong foot and before you start you know why there's always two sides to the story obviously i'm looking at a evidence standpoint what we and what we were called out to there's i don't know what you're going through if you're going through anything we're all humans you know before me being a detective um no father you know i'm i'm you know son and stuff like that we're all human it doesn't matter what rank we have or how old we are all right and that's why you know i asked you to come out here and give me your your side of the story okay i'm not here to judge you i'm not here to question you i'm not here to accuse you i'm not here to you know belittle you that's not what i do that's not my job so my job is to invest again that's exactly what i'm doing all right so um if you can i would kindly ask you just to tell me the truth and we'll go from there okay so you know what's going on or what happened today or what led to this wait i don't i mean i can tell you but i need you to ask because then i can't tell you because right okay so um obviously i got confirmation that you you were pregnant okay right i found that out yesterday you found that out yesterday yesterday okay so tell me a little bit more about that like um so how is that you found out or how well i've been having back pain like really bad and i got an accident september of 2021 and um i just thought that's what it was and i mean the pain comes and goes and so i didn't really think anything much of it um and it just kept hurting it's always my mom took me to the er and they just said that i had some kind of spray and i don't even know what kind it was and they just gave me medicine for it and it wasn't helping okay but i still didn't think anything much of it um i gave them my urine sample and see for infection or anything there was nothing i guess i don't know and then um i just kept hurting and so i went to the clinic and they did a urine example and they told me i was pregnant and that's when i found out he said it was yesterday yesterday and where did you go what clinic what i had the one on el paso del okay which one lady yeah okay the one under construction all right who took you myself my parents were at work your parents were yeah okay so i believe your mom said that she had accompanied you or she took here she went with you no she didn't okay i went by myself all right so as i mentioned you before anything i i i like to speak you know with the truth obviously okay i spoke to some people and i i know that back in march you know is when you spoke to some people and you told them that you were pregnant so you had prior knowledge all right so i'm not gonna um right you know somebody by the name of walker do you know anybody a friend of yours a school friend of yours that i spoke with and she's the one that told me that you knew that you were pregnant walker and that you did not want the child walker her mom is a nurse at the hospital you don't know anybody by that name no no not a walker okay well that's your mom's last name but i spoke with her and she's the one that told me obviously that you knew had prior knowledge all right like i said if you gotta be straightforward okay so anyway explain to me as far as what happened today how did your day start today the same as any other day what was this for the past couple of days okay um if i was in pain i just thought i was uh what is it called i'm sorry i know there's a lot of i understand there is a lot going on where you can't poop okay constipation yeah yeah i just thought that's what it was okay so you literally whole day and i would go to sleep and then go back to the restaurant go to sleep and go back to the restaurant just the same thing okay so what time did your day start i don't even i couldn't tell you to be honest okay so you don't know what time you woke up or do you are you working do you go to school i i go to school but i didn't go i haven't been to school this week and i didn't have work today okay where are you working okay so you haven't been going to school this whole week no no because you've been sick or yeah okay so you don't know what time you woke up obviously a lot happened okay so i just wanted to know i had time for this for you i wouldn't be able to tell you okay you don't know what time you wake up but you woke up at your parents house where you live yeah what's your address 809 west mckinsey okay um you woke up there you live with your parents right okay um what did you do when you when you woke up i went to the restroom and i was in pain i was up all night going i was asleep and i go the restroom and then just at all hours of the night all day today okay so what happened after you started going to the restroom i just went back to sleep because i couldn't go okay and then after that what did she do what do you mean yeah i mean obviously it was repetitive and then my dad came my dad went to the store and went got me some pills i don't even know what they were but um they were supposed to help me poop and i took it and i went back to sleep and i stayed asleep before i don't even know how long okay and then i woke up and i just kept trying to use the restroom and i'd go back to sleep and it just repetitive what happened after that what do you mean so obviously i mean you you and i know what happened oh yeah but like i'm i'm trying i can't tell you if you like i'm not a very good explanation okay so obviously you gave birth to a child right i'm trying to find out where it happened how it happened or what led to that and stuff like that um i i went to sleep and then i woke up and i went to the restroom and i was just trying and then um it it came out and i thought it was poop and then it wasn't okay so you were aware and you're at your house yeah i was by myself by yourself yes okay i mean that's that's not normal right right okay what happened after that i i was in a panic i didn't know what to do okay i was scared okay what would you do after i tried i cleaned myself and i just it just left it where it was and i was scared i was trying to call my mom but i couldn't because i was so scared i was i think she was gonna hate me what made you think though just because i just turned 18 i haven't been been 18 for a month and i'm just a baby what i understand that's that's a lot to take okay and that's why i'm here getting your side of the story um you're home alone or who was that you're by yourself okay and this happened where the restroom your restroom you guys have separate restrooms no there's one message there's one restroom okay what'd you do after the fact what happened i mean obviously like i was i was i was just cleaning i was scared i didn't know what to do okay and i just wrapped it in and put it in the towel okay um did you ever thought of contacting you know an ambulance a fire department go out there and check your was scared i eyes know what to do okay scared of what exactly the baby had like it was in nowhere right but you're telling me that you knew yesterday right yeah but i didn't know it was i didn't know how when i didn't know nothing i knew but i didn't like know what it was coming today right so it was unexpected right you weren't expecting it to happen no did you contact anybody no okay you said you didn't contact your mom no i tried but i was dick i couldn't i was scared okay so there's a difference between being scared i mean i understand you're young you don't know obviously but if you both you and i know that pregnancies you know they're they're pretty obvious your stomach starts growing you know you got several different symptoms and stuff like that right i didn't have nothing i was getting away i was eating more i was nothing nothing changed so you're in the restroom you give birth you wrap it into a towel what is that your towel color towel and i don't even remember to be honest okay so what was your next what else you do after that i i just left and i drove around and and i just put it to where i put it okay where are we talking about what and where i mean obviously i know where you went and you didn't put right like i had the trash bag in the car okay if you couldn't tell the car is messy but i i put it i did it so and then i put it in i put it in the bag i took it to the car i when i was in the car i put i had two trash bags i took one with me which is the one that i had and then i i put it again and then i would i just i drove around and i didn't know what to do and i just put it in there okay where did you go waiting where did you drive to jcpenney i was in i lived that i was in that area i was i live in that area so where did you where did you throw the garbage bag in the trash okay did you lock it up you seal it up were you by yourself in the car i was by myself the whole time okay you never notified anybody oh okay so you grabbed your hair tie and just wrapped it around the bar both bags were no just well i guess yeah what color was the bag black the black bar so you put the hair tie around the black bag all right so i don't even think it stayed to be honest like i said it was broke like it was on the verge of breaking right did you place it there did you throw it there what did you do i just what do you mean i mean the trash i just did when i tossed it in the normal trash can like one of those that they pick up the city picks up or the bigger trash can or what the bigger trash can well what kind of trash can were we talking about the bigger one i guess okay what color was the trash can green aren't they hot green so you just want to place it inside or outside or inside all right um so obviously you're 18 years of age you know right from wrong right right okay so you wrap around a newborn inside a trash but you know i mean if somebody were to wrap you inside a trash can and put a tie on it and you're not able to move what do you think would have happened so what do you think would have happened you never notified law enforcement you never called for ems i didn't invite you and i'm still in what what exactly what do you think was gonna happen i don't know you don't know what would have happened well i mean obviously i know but and i i'm in a panic i don't i should there's a baby in front of me i just okay do you never notified your mom never no you never know to fight anymore nobody okay so it's not you know it's not normal behavior from any reasonable person to do what you did if i'm fighting me it's not in a panic when i just turned 18 right it still isn't though we're talking about a baby i know i know what you mean but like i'm i get what you mean yeah let me take a small break i'll be right back um well you're 18 years of age okay so unless you were a juvenile then that would change things but give me just a minute i'll be right back not even when you're out of the room [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right um back to where we left off um i appreciate you you'll be telling me what happened and stuff what did you do after the fact i know what time more or less was it do you remember to recall like 2 15 maybe somewhere around that time okay that's when you dropped off the baby somewhere i believe so yeah what did you do after the fact i drove over and continued to drive to figure out what to do okay what else tommy where'd you go where'd you end up going where did i end up going to house what would you do after to my when i went to my house i just sat on my bed and i was trying to figure out what what i was supposed to do what to do at any point did you make anybody aware of it no i'm still in shock okay nobody found out nobody knew about it okay were your parents back home at the time you were home alone okay did you seek any medical attention or no did you think about you know what could have happened or what you know could end up happening to the baby yeah okay my mom said it was like is it okay okay um they'll be briefing me here as we go so last i heard the baby's okay okay so did you did they ever cross your mind to let anybody know contact law enforcement you know go back i don't know because i was still i'm still in shock the whole time when my parents got home they just didn't tell them i was still in shock i was just in my room you're in your room okay did you ever leave the home afterwards did you go anywhere no did you talk to your parents when they got home yeah eventually but i didn't say anything so your parents have no knowledge no knowledge absolutely not and what if i were to tell you that they did have knowledge they told me they didn't know about it what would you say then how because i didn't even know okay you didn't know but yesterday you found out i mean what do you mean because i feel like we're talking about two different things and it's not going well we're talking about a baby that was thrown in the trash like garbage right and it's a human being that's what we're talking about when my knowledge is when they found out was when the officer showed up at my house okay so i'm talking about the knowledge of you being pregnant obviously oh because i know that you knew back when you found out you were pregnant and then it wasn't yesterday that's what i took audience okay i i don't like i said i don't i don't go that route but i know and i do my investigation prior to even talking to you and you know coming out here and interviewing you okay as i told you i don't i don't i'm not here to judge you there's two sides to a story but if you're gonna come and tell me that you found out you were pregnant yesterday and i know that's a lie sorry go ahead no go ahead then it changes things because i don't i don't appreciate that right i found out i was pregnant yesterday because i heard it the doctor showed me i knew back in whenever but i didn't know does that make sense like i was like oh it's whatever so you knew back whenever when is this what are we talking about back in august okay maybe a little bit before that all right so yesterday whenever you went to the doctor how far along did they tell you you were they didn't tell you no okay so that's how i didn't know it was coming today [Music] all right so obviously i'm not a girl i'm a guy but i i know women have natural parrots so how can you not know i had my menstrual period every month okay so that never changed never somebody you knew back in august i oh i took two one was positive one was negative i took the negative i didn't okay what about you know as far as you've been gaining weight any movement any anything like that yeah okay so um back in june you had an incident i guess you ran away from home were you having no i guess you could say ran away okay was it the result of this and you don't have no problems with it was a completely different matter okay so it was this the father of your baby the person you were or you were having issues with or you were sending me messages to your mom suicidal messages saying that you were going to be with god and cops were called out to your address in june is it you know does this have to do to me it obviously it it has nothing to do with the imagination this is not the person that is responsible for your baby i know there's a lot of questions i'm asking i'm just trying to figure out like i said i'm not kidding okay so there's not a result to this he had nothing to do like it was right so it's it's not him is there somebody we need to talk to i mean did he do something to you no no no that would lead to this did he did he no no okay but you do know who was the father of the baby okay but he didn't yeah okay do you mind sharing his name okay do you happen to know his date of birth by chance i don't sorry do you know more or less how old he is he's 16. 17. 16 or 17. you all dated for how long uh about a year and a half okay so i'm assuming you met in school yes do you mind me asking what happened or what did y'all break up we we broke a witch and it was overkill okay when did y'all break up when oh i don't even remember you don't remember more or less a year ago about august i think around august yeah sometimes when like the beginning of school okay so you said things weren't working out yeah so obviously if you know you know for you to tell me that he's obviously the father of your child you should have known when you got pregnant right honestly not really not really but you you're able to tell me who it is so yeah well he's the only one i've ever been with a reasonable person would say that you knew when you got pregnant not without due respect not necessarily because i mean okay yeah i'm just you know you give me information obviously but he didn't do anything as far as to lead you to do this did he nothing okay did you just think um [Music] you would be better off without a child because you're too young no i wait wait sorry go back what do you mean uh what's i'm trying to reason as far as like what is what is in my head or like whatever i'm trying to reason your actions that's what i'm trying to find out i'll get a reason behind your actions i i knew i was too young but i knew i would be able to do like i'm about to graduate school this school is not my worry i have a stable job i'm money's not a worry for me um so i would be able to i i if the baby's okay i want it okay and what if i told you the baby's dead what would change then nothing on monday january 10 2022 avila was arraigned and released until a pre-trial detention hearing two days later at the detention hearing a crowd gathered at the courthouse entrance they carried signs some of which read babies are a gift from god not garbage and justice for baby avila appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and child abuse however judge william shoebridge mandated house arrest for alexis avila until trial with the following conditions she must always remain in her home except for school work medical appointments or counseling she must wear a gps tracking device she is barred from seeing the abandoned baby boy or any child under age 10 lastly she is restricted from using any social media and cannot have contact with any males at her home judge shoebridge explained the house arrest would sufficiently protect the community without avila being in jail but angry community members disagreed with the judge's decision outrage outside the lovington courthouse today protesters banging on the car of a new young new mexico mother who is facing charges for throwing her baby in a dumpster after a judge ruled she will not remain behind bars until trial at an evidentiary hearing on monday february 28th a district court ruled that the evidence is sufficient to bring alexis avila to trial for attempted murder or child abuse resulting in great bodily harm that will be up to a jury to decide which fits alexis avila's trial is set to start on december 19th roughly two months later in april lawyers for avila filed a motion to obtain visitation rights before the judge ruled alexis stated i know people portray me as a terrible person but in reality i'm not i am kind loving and caring according to kob tv avila's lawyer said she has abided by all mandatory court requirements and is receiving counseling despite the defense's arguments judge shubridge denied the motion for visitation rights the judge clarified it was only four months ago you placed your son in a trash bag on a frigid day and by your own admission and video evidence threw him into a dumpster he'll know for a lifetime the actions that you took that you tried to terminate his life there are many open questions surrounding this unsettling case the main one of course is why what allegedly caused alexis avila to abandon her newborn child was she aware of new mexico's safe haven law due to the frequency and perilous nature of infant abandonment cases like avilas all 50 u.s states have adopted safe haven laws to encourage mothers in crisis to safely relinquish their babies to designated locations where infants will be protected and given medical care avila could have dropped off the infant at a hospital if the baby had not been abused and was less than 90 days old however the hospital would have required her to disclose the biological father's name since they had previously been in a contentious relationship could this requirement have deterred her alexis avila will soon have her day in court while many are understandably angry at her actions and demand punishment others focus on the best outcomes in this case wouldn't the best result be a rehabilitated mother capable of loving supporting and nourishing a child who flourishes or should the solution be to lock her up and throw away the key and with it any hope that young person has about transforming their life and being released from prison that's a question for you the viewer courts will consider the crime and balance the potential positive outcomes against future harm to the child one thing is certain avila's baby who was thrown in a dumpster with his umbilical cord still attached and left for dead is a survivor and one day he too may ask how much forgiveness should be extended to his mother [Music] you