FORT WORTH, Texas - A 17-year-old from Fort Worth was sentenced to 15 years in prison for murdering her newborn baby.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said the girl delivered baby Dayana in the bathroom of her family’s home on September 9, 2021, when she was 15.
Paramedics were called, and the girl and the baby were taken to a hospital.
Baby Dayana was found to have a skull fracture and was hemorrhaging. She lived about six hours before she was pronounced dead.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Dayana’s death a homicide from blunt force injuries to the head.
The 17-year-old, who’s name is not being released because she is a minor, was charged with capital murder of a person under 10 years old. Investigators said she beat her baby to death.
Newborn found dead in bushes outside Fort Worth home, police looking for mother
Fort Worth PD is asking for the public's help with any surveillance video or information that can identify the child's mother, family or other witnesses.
Authorities said they reviewed the teen’s chats with the baby’s father, and they both said they didn’t want the baby.
They reportedly talked about how to get rid of the baby. Those discussions reportedly included talks of abortion pills, punching the teen in the stomach, and the teen saying she could wrap the baby "in a towel and hit it."
The teen admitted she killed her baby, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, and has since had another baby, which was taken by Child Protective Services.
The teen's lawyers argued that her "strict religious upbringing" led to her hiding her pregnancy, and it was the baby's father who encouraged her to "miscarry, have an abortion, or get rid
of the baby."
They also said that criminal charges were not filed until last November, and by that time, the baby's father had turned 18 and was not able to be charged.
Prosecutors tried to get the teen tried as an adult, but 323rd District Judge Alex Kim kept her in the juvenile court system.
The teen will be sent to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
Before her 19th birthday, the judge will decide whether she will go to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to serve the remainder of her sentence.