Woman sentenced for baby's death in child-stealing scheme
LOS ANGELES -- A Southern California woman who killed a 3-week-old girl during a child-stealing scheme has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Giseleangelique D'Milian was sentenced Friday after pleading no contest to first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Authorities say the Thousand Oaks woman and a friend stole baby Eliza De La Cruz from her Long Beach home three years ago. The boy's parents and uncle were shot and wounded.
Authorities say a child-stealing attempt in El Segundo failed, although the mother was beaten.
Prosecutors say D'Milian wanted the babies after falsely telling her married boyfriend she'd had twins.
"She fabricated a story and wanted him to believe these children were his. Why? We don't know," Long Beach police Lt. Lloyd Cox said after her 2015 arrest.
Police said D'Milian and the accomplice, Anthony McCall, followed Eliza and her mother on Jan. 3, 2015 as they rode a public bus in Long Beach. D'Milian briefly spoke with the mother as she exited the bus and two hours later McCall burst into their home, shot the baby's parents and uncle, and kidnapped Eliza, police said.
The baby was found dead in a trash bin the following day in Imperial Beach, a Mexican border city 100 miles away. She had apparently suffocated.
On Feb. 6, 2015, police said, McCall attacked a 23-year-old mother with a baseball bat in an El Segundo hotel room with the goal of stealing her 4-month-old son. McCall was scared away when hotel guests alerted workers, who intervened. He escaped and the baby was unharmed.
Police said at the time they were aware of D'Milian's elaborate online persona in which she portrayed herself as a "masterful genius behind so many ventures," calling herself a business mogul with a music and motivational speaking career and a published book.
McCall has pleaded not guilty to murder.