Attorney: 'Fear Of Jehovah Witness Family Drove Mom To Drown Baby' -- (CBS)

by Spittn4Cash 11 Replies latest social current

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  Spittn4Cash

  

  SANTA ANA (CBS) — A young Fullerton mom is headed to prison on Friday for drowning her newborn baby in a toilet.

  KNX 1070′s Mike Landa reports Yanira Valderrama, 21, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of child abuse and inflicting great bodily injury.

  

  Valderrama was reportedly embarrassed by her pregnancy and attempted to conceal it from her Jehovah Witness family, a deputy public defender said.

  Orange County prosecutor Steve McGreevy said Valderrama’s baby boy drowned when she gave birth into a bathroom toilet on Sept. 4, 2009.

  “There was a lot of bleeding and shock, and she unfortunately didn’t act well and left the baby underwater for an extended period of time so that the baby could never get oxygen,” said McGreevy.

  She eventually removed the baby from the toilet, wrapped his lifeless body, and put the baby in a wastebasket in her bedroom, McGreevy said.

  Later that night, the defendant’s mother saw blood in the bathroom, found the discarded placenta and called police, who found the newborn in the trash can.

  Valderrama was taken to a hospital, where doctors confirmed she had just given birth, according to prosecutors.

  (Source)
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  wha happened?

  Fear will drive people to do terrible things.
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  NewChapter

  Especially a young woman who may already be unbalanced, bled heavily, has her hormones f'd up, and THEN has to worry that her family will turn their backs on her, all her friends, and possibly face homelessness. Ingredients for a disaster. Not to absolve her, but pregnancy can do very strange things, especially with the pressure she was under.

  NC
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  Spittn4Cash

  fear of what? giving birth? lol
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  NewChapter

  No. If she was afraid of giving birth, she could have had an abortion. This was external pressure that probably mixed with physical factors. I experienced severe postpartum depression. I did not hurt my child. But I understand the change in the mind that can spiral out of control without proper support. It's a very scary thing.

  NC
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  james_woods

  Dysfunctional girl, dysfunctional family.

  It happens to many people, not just witnesses.

  I put this down to a case of family craziness, not so much that they happened to be witnesses.
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  keyser soze

  Isn't abortion legal in California? That would've been a more logical way to conceal her pregnancy from her family, especially if the end result was the baby dying. Sorry, but I'm having a little trouble blaming the Witnesses for this one. They may have created an atmosphere of fear, but she's still responsible. She was 21, according to the article.
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  NewChapter

  It happened on 2009, so I think she may have been 18 or 19 when it happened. She's 21 now (I believe). But that aside, this does happen in many places and contexts. It's a deadly mix that can come from many different types of social pressure. And worshipping the god of dead babies probably doesn't help, but hey, whatever.

  NC
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  ScenicViewer

  It happens to many people, not just witnesses.

  Yes it does. But this does show that Witnesses are really no different from other people. Being God's clean people, being no part of the world, having a spiritual paradise that no one else has, it's all an empty concept, peddled to the faithful by an organization that masquerades as true religion.
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  Band on the Run

  I wonder if the baby ever breathed? If she intended to kill the infant, murder should be applied with a much heavier sentence. Five years is not long to serve. There had to be facts that a prosecutor decided not to really punish her. It is so sad. So young and never turned to a single person for help.

  I will never forget this famous case from a while ago. A young women raised by evangelical fundamentalist became pregnant during an affair with a married man. Her parents decided to correct her by forcing her to kill her dog. She was very bonded to the dog. The dog was more than just a pet, her true beloved. Rather than kill her puppy, she blew her head off with the gun.