A teenage mother who is reportedly in the US illegally has been accused of dumping her newborn baby in a trash can and telling police she had “no choice but to abandon my child in such a cruel way,” according to reports.
Everilda Cax Azitzalam, 18, was arrested Thursday in Houston, Texas. Investigators allege that she gave birth to a baby boy on July 21 “on the ground behind the food truck where she worked,” then placed the baby in a “tied-up garbage bag” and dumped the newborn in a trash can at a random apartment building. Law and crime.
“(The defendant) placed the child, placenta and umbilical cord in a garbage bag, took the garbage bag to a garbage collection site and left the child in the garbage can with the child still tied inside the garbage bag,” Harris County District Court Magistrate Judge Kuks Ajitsaram wrote in his bail order.
Luckily, a passerby discovered the newborn baby later that day when he began crying.
Houston police and paramedics safely rescued the baby from the trash can and transported him to Texas Children’s Hospital for examination.
Investigators soon discovered the child had ties to the food truck, which led them to Kuks Azitzalam.
According to Law & Crime, the allegedly negligent mother told investigators in a sickening tone that she “had no choice” to throw the baby in the trash because she “didn’t want her boyfriend to break up with her.”
The “incident” was also captured on CCTV footage, according to the bail order.
Sad video provided ABC13 It shows the moment paramedics arrived on the scene and discovered the baby boy inside the bag.
EMS workers were seen wrapping the crying newborn in a blue blanket just inches from the trash can.
The newborn baby boy has since been taken into custody of Child Protective Services and is in good health.
The suspect, Kucus Azitzalam, a Guatemalan national, was charged with one felony count of abandoning a child with no intention of returning.
She made her first court appearance Friday, where Harris County District Judge Veronica M. Nelson scolded her for leaving her son in a trash can to die, the release said. Houston Chronicle.
“You are so lucky your child was found and taken care of,” Nelson told his mother.
“Given the fact that it was the middle of summer in Houston, Texas, and temperatures at the time were dangerous for children, I will be setting bail in this case at $90,000.”
Prosecutors asked for her bail to be set at $150,000, but her public defender asked for bail of $7,500.
However, Kuks Azitzalam’s bail was increased to $200,000 on Monday, according to ABC13.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has withheld her release, determining that she is a flight risk.
Kuks Azitzalam was also arrested by Customs and Border Protection in 2023 and has an undisclosed mental disability, according to records obtained by authorities. Houston Chronicle.
She is currently being held in the Harris County Jail.
