Woman accused of attack, cutting out fetus

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE

A woman who faked a pregnancy and panicked as her supposed due date grew near attacked a pregnant mother with a baseball bat and cut her full-term fetus from her womb with an X-Acto knife, killing the mother and baby, according to court documents filed Monday.

Annette Morales-Rodriguez, 33, faces one count each of first-degree intentional homicide while armed and first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed in the death of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz and the boy she was set to deliver next week. Morales-Rodriguez faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.

Morales-Rodriguez made a brief court appearance Monday, standing silent as her bail was set at $1 million.

According to the criminal complaint, Morales-Rodriguez told detectives that her boyfriend wanted a son but she couldn’t get pregnant.

She told investigators she planned for two weeks to find a pregnant woman, take the baby and make it hers, the complaint said.

Morales-Rodriguez drove around Wednesday searching for a pregnant woman, but found none, authorities said. On Thursday she drove around a nonprofit organization that provides Hispanics with health care and found Ramirez-Cruz.

The 23-year-old had moved from Puerto Rico to join her childhood sweetheart, Christian Mercado, said Mercado’s father, Carlos Mercado. They already had three children together and Ramirez-Cruz was carrying their fourth.

Morales-Rodriguez offered Ramirez-Cruz a ride.

Telling Ramirez-Cruz she needed to change her shoes, she drove them to her house. Ramirez-Cruz went inside to use the bathroom. Morales- Rodriguez waited for her with a baseball bat.

The complaint said Morales-Rodriguez bludgeoned her, then straddled her and choked her until she passed out. Morales-Rodriguez then duct-taped Ramirez-Cruz’s feet, hands, mouth and nose. She cut her open with the knife, the complaint said.

When she pulled the fetus out, the baby wasn’t breathing, Morales-Rodriguez said. She smeared some of Ramirez-Cruz’s blood around her thighs to make people think she herself was bleeding from giving birth. Then she called 911 and said she’d given birth to a stillborn. She was taken to a hospital, but left before she was fully examined, the complaint said.

An autopsy the next day revealed that the baby wasn’t the product of a natural birth. Police returned to Morales-Rodriguez’s house that day and took her back to the hospital. An examination verified she hadn’t given birth and officers arrested her.

Morales-Rodriguez is due back in court Oct. 19 for a preliminary hearing.