Attorneys say strict upbringing, abortion laws for minors contributed to teen murdering her baby
FORT WORTH – Attorneys for a 17-year-old girl told a jury in Fort Worth that her strict upbringing, and abortion laws for minors, contributed to her hiding her pregnancy and making plans to kill the child just after she gave birth.
The girl has pleaded true to the capital murder charge, the juvenile equivalent of pleading guilty in adult court.
Prosecutors told the jury the girl deserved a 40-year prison sentence for inflicting the injuries that led to the baby girl's death.
The murder happened at the girl's home in September 2021. In a harrowing 911 call played in court, the girl could be heard screaming "I don't want it" in the background, while her sister fought through cries to explain to the operator what was happening.
A paramedic testified the teenager told them she gave birth on the toilet, and the baby may have hit its head. The injuries however, including bruising and cuts to the child's face and head, did not match up to the girl's description the paramedic said.
Cook Children's Medical Center alerted police after the baby died that the injuries were not consistent with an accident.
Fort Worth police Detective Christopher Parker read a series of texts and Snapchat messages to the court, where the girl and the baby's father, a boy who lived down the street, discussed how they were afraid to tell their parents about the pregnancy and what they could do to end it.
"What if I try to get a miscarriage?" the girl asked in a message after discovering she was pregnant.
A month later she asked him to help punch her in the stomach. And a month before the baby was delivered the boy appeared to agree to the decision to kill the baby, writing "We gon have to kill it, as much as I hate to say it."
Defense attorney Lisa Herrick said the girl came from a home with a strict religious upbringing and was afraid of being disowned if she was pregnant. She had no sex education and it was clear she was talking about wanting an abortion, which Texas law would not have allowed without the consent of a parent.
Parker said the investigation from that point on involved a painstaking process of going through text messages and trying to talk to witnesses, including the boy, who he said he was unable to find at school or at home.
He did not file a criminal case against the girl until November of 2023. He admitted in court that he should have filed it much sooner, in part blaming a high caseload, but that the time didn't change any facts of the case, including that he didn't believe there was a charge that could be proved against the father of the child. During that time, defense attorneys for the girl told the jury in their opening statement, that the child's father had "aged out" of the juvenile justice system and is now unable to be charged.
Defense attorney Frank Adler questioned Parker extensively about what evidence Parker needed to spend years looking for, suggesting the detective had lost track of the only capital murder case he was working on.
During that time, the girl delivered another child with a different father. Her attorney said she had done everything asked of her with that child, following a process set out by Child Protective Services and that rules regarding her visitations were "tapering off" when she was arrested for the murder.
She is now on birth control, has received sex education for the first time, and Herrick said she has been a model resident in detention, asking the jury "What would the benefit of prison be?"