Teen Mom Charged With Capital Murder Of Newborn Found In Flowerpot
CARROLLTON (CBSDFW.COM) - A teenager who came forward as the mother of a newborn found buried in a flowerpot in a Carrollton cemetery was charged with capital murder in the baby girl's death.
Jazmin Lopez, 18, was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Denton County jail. She remained in custody Wednesday, with bail set at $500,000.
On March 11, caretaker for the Perry Cemetery, Paul Price told police he found the remains of an infant in a flowerpot. She weighed six pounds and still had the umbilical cord attached to her.
On March 27 police made a plea to the public in hopes of locating the baby's parents.
A couple days later, Lopez came forward. She provided a buccal DNA swab and gave detectives consent to search her phone.
Lopez told police she gave birth to a girl -- named Kailen -- alone, passed out while holding Kailen and that the baby was dead when she awoke.
Detectives found images of a Kailen taken on February 4 in which she was was deceased, according to Lopez's arrest-warrant affidavit. They also saw conversations between Lopez and another male. She was seeking information on how to abort her pregnancy sometime between 4-5 months into her pregnancy.
On April 12 Lopez changed her story to police. She claimed that for months she sought an abortion and her family didn't know she was pregnant.
In her arrest-warrant affidavit, Lopez told police she gave birth in a closet and wrapped the baby in a shirt. Lopez said she covered Kailen's mouth to quiet her cries and held the baby while she cleaned up the blood.
After throwing her placenta in the trash, Lopez said she put Kailen in a basket in the closet, covered in blankets – but not her face and went to eat breakfast.
Then Lopez called a friend to help her get the baby out of the apartment. While waiting for her ride, according to the arrest-warrant affidavit, Lopez finished cleaning up the blood in the closet and put Kailen in a backpack.
Lopez told police "she knew for sure the baby was no longer alive" by the time she got to the car, according to the arrest-warrant affidavit.
"She wasn't moving like she was before."
Lopez told police they then drove to a park to hash out a plan to get rid of Kailen's body. They went to Home Depot and bought the flower pot.
They buried Kailen in the flowerpot and Lopez's friend took it back home where it stayed in the car overnight.
The friend met with Lopez at Perry Cemetery the next day on February 5
Detectives observed Lopez didn't have anything in the home to care for a newborn – no diapers, bottles or wipes.
They determined she intentionally didn't seek help from her grandmother, father or uncle who were home when Kailene was born.
Lopez is currently behind bars on a $500,000 dollar bond.
If you have a newborn that you're unable to care for, you can bring your baby to a designated safe place with no questions asked. The Safe Haven law, also known as the Baby Moses law, gives parents who are unable to care for their child a safe and legal choice to leave their infant with an employee at a designated safe place—a hospital, fire station, free-standing emergency centers or emergency medical services (EMS) station. Then, your baby will receive medical care and be placed with an emergency provider.
