Mom Gets Plea Deal in Infant Death
Pilot News Staff Report
WARSAW � The Warsaw woman who gave birth to a baby at work and then left the child in a trash can is expected to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the case.
Beatriz Cuautle, 29, faces up to 20 years in prison in connection with the death of her newborn daughter. She also could be deported to Mexico.
Cuautle was originally charged with voluntary man-slaughter in October, but that charge was revised to murder after prosecutors reviewed an autopsy report on the infant girl.
Investigators said Cuautle has agreed to a plea deal that was entered on Warsaw Superior Court. She is expected in court one day next week.
Cuautle was arrested Oct. 21 after a janitor discovered the child�s body wrapped in gauze and left in a garbage can in the restroom of Kralis Bros. Foods Inc. in Mentone, about 35 miles south of South Bend.
According to court documents, Cuautle told co-workers she felt sick and spent the next two hours in a bathroom. She told police that she was using the restroom when she gave birth to the infant.
Police said Cuautle wrapped the baby in toilet paper, put it in the garbage can and returned to work.
Employees found bloody rags and the baby�s body in the restroom garbage can. They were appalled. Some employees were sent home for the day because they were too shaken about what took place at the plant.
Paramedics on the scene found no life signs in the full-term child. Kosciusko County Coroner Larry Ladd said the child died of asphyxiation from suffocation.
Tests revealed the baby could have been alive when Cuautle abandoned the child.
Cuautle is from Mexico and has three children still living there. A fourth child and her husband live in the Warsaw area.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report).
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