Left: Everilda Cux-Ajtzalam (Harris County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Authorities recovering Cux-Ajtzalam’s newborn from the dumpster (KTRK).
A 19-year-old mother in Texas who left her newborn son in a dumpster and told police she had to do it or else her boyfriend “would break up with her” will be going to prison.
Harris County District Judge Veronica M. Nelson on Monday ordered Everilda Cux-Ajtzalam to serve a sentence of seven years in a state correctional facility, court records show. Cux-Ajtzalam reached a deal with prosecutors in which she agreed to plead guilty to one count of felony abandoning a child in imminent danger of bodily injury for leaving they boy, later named “Gabriel,” in the trash behind the taco truck where she was working.
A passerby heard the boy’s cries and notified authorities, saving his life.
Cux-Ajtzalam, who has been in custody since her initial arrest last year, was credited with 369 days of time already served.
“Today, baby Gabriel is healthy, thriving and living with his foster parents,” a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. “We are grateful to the person who happened to hear his cries from the dumpster, called police and ultimately saved Gabriel’s life.”
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As previously reported by Law&Crime, Cux-Ajtzalam on July 21, 2024, gave birth “on the ground behind the food truck where she works” and then taking the baby and placing him in “a tied garbage bag” and leaving him in a dumpster in the 6000 block of Dashwood Drive in Houston, Texas.
“(Defendant) put the child, placenta, & umbilical cord into a trash bag, took the trash bag to a dumpster, & left the child in the dumpster tied inside the trash bag,” a magistrate judge wrote in a bond order that included a brief narrative of what transpired.
Later, an individual walking past the dumpster heard the newborn crying and called 911. Officers with the Houston Police Department and emergency medical personnel at about 1:15 p.m. responded to the area and were able to recover the child from inside the dumpster.
Medics with the Houston Fire Department transported the victim to Texas Children’s Hospital for treatment. Authorities said the child was stable and in good condition. After being treated, he was placed into the custody of Child Protective Services.
Police quickly connected the newborn to the food truck and tracked down Cux-Ajtzalam. In an interview with detectives, she said that she “had no choice” but to put the baby in the dumpster because “she didn’t want her boyfriend to break up with her,” the bond order stated, adding that the “event” was caught by a nearby surveillance camera.
During Cux-Ajtzalam’s first appearance before Nelson in July 2024, the judge unloaded on the would-be mother for leaving her son to die in a heap of garbage.
“It was pure luck that the child was found and received care,” Nelson said, according to the Chronicle. “Given the fact that it’s the middle of summer in Houston, Texas, and the temperature at the time noting the danger to the child; under those circumstances, I’m going to set the bail in this case at $90,000.”
Cux-Ajtzalam previously said that her child was the result of a family member raping her, the Washington Post reported. She reportedly said she was not aware that she was pregnant for about seven months, and was afraid to seek medical assistance because, as an undocumented immigrant, she feared being deported.
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