Woman, friend charged with murder in alleged baby-theft plot
LONG BEACH, Calif. - A 47-year-old woman and a friend were charged Friday with kidnapping, murder and attempted murder in an alleged plot to steal babies that investigators say was an effort by the woman to convince her married boyfriend that she had given birth to his twins.
Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian and Anthony Ray McCall, 29, were scheduled for arraignment Friday at the Long Beach courthouse, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.
Those charges involve the Jan. 3 abduction of a 3-week-old girl who was found dead the next day. The baby's parents and an uncle were shot and wounded.
D'Milian, McCall and a third defendant, Todd Damon Boudreaux, 44, also were charged with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping of a baby on Feb. 6.
If convicted, the three face up to life in prison. Prosecutors planned to ask that bail be set at $5 million each for D'Milian and McCall, and at $1 million for Boudreaux.
It wasn't clear if they have attorneys or would request public defenders at Friday's hearing.
D'Milian calls herself a mogul, a motivational speaker and a songwriter on her many websites.
But police paint her as a twisted schemer who was out to convince her boyfriend he fathered twin babies. There is no indication he knew of the plans.
D'Milian's daughter, Charisse Shelton, 30, was arrested with the others but prosecutors did not charge her.
Details of the case emerged a week after a Colorado woman who told her family she was pregnant lured an expectant mother to her home and cut the unborn baby from her belly, authorities said. The baby didn't survive, but the mother has been released from a hospital.
In D'Milian's case, no hint of violent tendencies appear on her multiple websites and international fan accounts, where she goes by René Reyes.
She advertised herself as the founder of an independent recording label and a professional speaker who has helped multinational corporations improve their operations. She had 271 podcasts on iTunes under the title "Speak Into Existence With René Reyes."
Police believe the only child abducted in the plot was 3-week-old Eliza Delacruz. D'Milian and McCall followed Eliza and her mother on Jan. 3 as they rode a Long Beach bus, police said.
D'Milian briefly spoke with the woman, then McCall burst into their home two hours later, 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.
Investigators wouldn't say how Eliza died, and they declined to discuss what might have motivated the woman's accomplices beyond saying McCall was a friend.
A month later, McCall attacked a 23-year-old mother with a baseball bat in an El Segundo hotel room, aiming to take her baby, police said. Hotel workers intervened, scaring him away, and the child wasn't hurt.