Teen mom who carried dead baby in Victoria’s Secret shopping bag is charged with murder (Photos)
The teen mom caught with a dead newborn in a shopping bag in 2013 while allegedly shoplifting at a Victoria’s Secret was charged with murdering the baby boy on Thursday.
Tiona Rodriguez, 18, “carried out the murder of her newborn infant and then callously shoved him in a bag with the plan of — in her words — to ‘take this s--- and dig a hole, put it somewhere, lol, then we go eat IHOP,’” prosecutor Rachel Ferrari said. She was quoting a text message Rodriguez sent at the teen’s arraignment on a second-degree murder charge.
The charge, filed nearly two years after the baby’s death, stems from the Brooklyn teen’s bizarre Oct. 17, 2013 shoplifting arrest.
She had been charged with lifting a $44.50 pair of skinny jeans from the Herald Square store one day after her baby was born.
When security searched her bag to investigate the theft, they made the gruesome and heartbreaking discovery.
Ferrari said the teen “became pregnant in early 2013 and told no one. She knew she would be in big trouble if her family found out. So, she made a plan to kill this baby,” and “began plotting weeks before he was born.”
“She took steps to get ready, and on October 16, 2013, she woke up and knew that this was the day. She contacted a friend and went to her home in Queens, away from the prying eyes of her friends, her family, her community in Brooklyn,” Ferrari said.
“She took a bag with her, and a change of clothes. And she went into her friend’s bathroom, turned on the tub, and gave birth to her baby. Ripping the cord with her bare hands.”
Ferrari said Rodriguez’s baby was 8 pounds and was full term.
Police carry evidence away from the scene of Rodriguez’s arrest.
“He wasn’t stillborn. He didn’t die of natural causes. He was murdered in that bathroom,” the prosecutor said.
“The defendant cleaned up after herself, leaving no sign of what transpired in that bathroom, taking her child out in a bag.”
She was on her way to ditch the body when she decided to make a pit stop at the lingerie store, the prosecutor said.
“The defendant took a break from that plan in order to stop in to Victoria’s Secret here in Manhattan and steal, shoving clothes into the same bag that carried her dead son,” Ferrari said.
She said Rodriguez “was not a panicked teenager who didn’t know what she was doing” and had been pregnant twice before.
“When the defendant was 14, she successfully hid her first pregnancy, and it was only when she was in the hospital in labor that her own family became aware that she was even pregnant,” Ferrari said. That child is now 4.
“In 2012, the defendant gave birth a second time. We have evidence that she gave birth to a second baby in her bathtub in her own home. She may have killed the baby, the baby may have been stillborn — but we know that she texted her boyfriend throughout the birth, ultimately telling him — it’s dead,” the prosecutor said.
Rodriguez and the baby’s father then, “discussed via text getting rid of it,” Ferrari said.
A security guard made the gruesome discovery in the Herald Square store.
Rodriguez’s lawyer Earl Ward argued that both the second and third pregnancies resulted in miscarriages.
“Judge, this is not a case of murder. As I said before, Ms. Rodriguez has always maintained her innocence,” he said.
She was ordered held without bail by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber.
Rodriguez faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
The baby’s death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office last year. An autopsy found the child died as a result of homicidal asphyxia, officials said.
The victim known only as Baby Boy Rodriguez was laid to rest earlier this year.
Detectives Thomas Schick and Jose Flores made arrangements to have him buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, a ceremony that was attended by investigators from the Midtown South Detective Squad, the Manhattan South Homicide Squad and the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
“He wasn’t stillborn. He didn’t die of natural causes. He was murdered in that bathroom,” the prosecutor said.
“The defendant cleaned up after herself, leaving no sign of what transpired in that bathroom, taking her child out in a bag.”
She was on her way to ditch the body when she decided to make a pit stop at the lingerie store, the prosecutor said.
“The defendant took a break from that plan in order to stop in to Victoria’s Secret here in Manhattan and steal, shoving clothes into the same bag that carried her dead son,” Ferrari said.
She said Rodriguez “was not a panicked teenager who didn’t know what she was doing” and had been pregnant twice before.
“When the defendant was 14, she successfully hid her first pregnancy, and it was only when she was in the hospital in labor that her own family became aware that she was even pregnant,” Ferrari said. That child is now 4.
“In 2012, the defendant gave birth a second time. We have evidence that she gave birth to a second baby in her bathtub in her own home. She may have killed the baby, the baby may have been stillborn — but we know that she texted her boyfriend throughout the birth, ultimately telling him — it’s dead,” the prosecutor said.
Rodriguez and the baby’s father then, “discussed via text getting rid of it,” Ferrari said.
A security guard made the gruesome discovery in the Herald Square store.
Rodriguez’s lawyer Earl Ward argued that both the second and third pregnancies resulted in miscarriages.
“Judge, this is not a case of murder. As I said before, Ms. Rodriguez has always maintained her innocence,” he said.
She was ordered held without bail by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber.
Rodriguez faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
The baby’s death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office last year. An autopsy found the child died as a result of homicidal asphyxia, officials said.
The victim known only as Baby Boy Rodriguez was laid to rest earlier this year.
Detectives Thomas Schick and Jose Flores made arrangements to have him buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, a ceremony that was attended by investigators from the Midtown South Detective Squad, the Manhattan South Homicide Squad and the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
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