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Crime

Woman Convicted of Murder After Slicing Out an Unborn Baby From a Pregnant Woman’s Womb

Sep. 21, 2012 6:49am Billy Hallowell

MILWAUKEE (TheBlaze/AP) — A Milwaukee woman who confessed to trying to steal a baby by attacking a pregnant woman and slicing out her full-term fetus was convicted Thursday of killing them both. TheBlaze first covered this disturbing story back in October 2011.

Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before finding Annette Morales-Rodriguez guilty of two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the October 2011 deaths of the mother and fetus. Morales-Rodriguez, 34, faces a mandatory life sentence when she’s sentenced Dec. 14, though a judge could allow for the possibility of parole. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

Annette Morales Rodriguez Found Guilty for Killing Mother, Unborn Baby

Annette Morales-Rodriguez, right, appears at her Milwaukee trial on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, to face charges that she killed a pregnant woman and tried to steal her full-term fetus. Her defense attorney, Debra Patterson, left, told jurors the homicides weren't intentional, and that her client never meant for the mother or baby to die.(AP Photo/Dinesh Ramde)

A key piece of evidence during the trial was a videotaped police interview in which Morales-Rodriguez described her attack on 23-year-old Maritza Ramirez-Cruz. She admitted luring Ramirez-Cruz to her home, bludgeoning and choking her into unconsciousness and using a small blade to carve out the fetus. She told investigators she was desperate to have a son, that she had faked a pregnancy and that she devised a plan to steal an unborn baby as her supposed due date approached.

Ramirez-Cruz died due to a combination of blood loss, blunt trauma and asphyxiation, and the male fetus died as a result of her death, a medical examiner testified.

Morales-Rodriguez did not testify, and her attorneys did not call any witnesses. They also did not deny that she attacked Ramirez-Cruz, instead arguing that the deaths were reckless but not intentional. They urged jurors to convict her of the lesser charge of first-degree reckless homicide, which carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

“We never said she didn’t do it. She told the cops she did,” public defender Reyna Morales told the jury of six men and six women during closing statements. “But the evidence … from the very beginning all the way to the last minutes, reckless, reckless, reckless.”

Morales argued that if her client meant for the victim to die, she would have had a plan for disposing of the body instead of stashing it in the basement. She also said Morales-Rodriguez wanted the baby to live so she could raise him as her own.

Photo: Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office

In the police interview, Morales-Rodriguez explained that she was desperate to give her boyfriend a son but that she couldn’t “stay pregnant.” She said she twice pretended to be pregnant, only to claim each time that she miscarried. The third time she considered another scenario: stealing the fetus from a pregnant Hispanic woman, she said.

She described how she went to a Latino community center and found Ramirez-Cruz, a mother of three in her 40th week of pregnancy.

Morales-Rodriguez told police she offered Ramirez-Cruz a ride and brought her to Morales-Rodriguez’s home. There, she bashed Ramirez-Cruz in the head with a baseball bat and choked her until she passed out. She said she then put duct tape over the younger woman’s mouth and nose and wrapped a plastic bag around her head. She then used a small blade to slice the victim open from hip to hip and pulled out a stillborn boy.

In a 911 call played for jurors, she told a dispatcher that she had just given birth to a baby who wasn’t breathing.

Bailiffs bring Annette Morales-Rodriguez, left, into a Milwaukee County courtroom on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, shortly before a jury convicted her of killing a pregnant woman and slicing out her full-term fetus last year. Morales-Rodriguez now faces a mandatory life sentence, although a judge could allow for the possibility of parole. (Photo Credit: AP)

In the ensuing investigation and autopsy, a medical examiner found evidence that the baby wasn’t the product of a natural birth. A subsequent examination verified Morales-Rodriguez hadn’t given birth.

Police later found Ramirez-Cruz’s disemboweled body in Morales-Rodriguez’s basement.

Prosecutor Mark Williams told jurors that every detail in the case pointed to deliberate intent. Morales-Rodriguez had plenty of opportunities to stop short of killing Ramirez-Cruz, he said, but at every turn she made the decision to press on.

Williams emphasized that Ramirez-Cruz must have gasped for air and pleaded for mercy as she was choked, with her killer likely looking her in the eye. He also discussed how Morales-Rodriguez admitted taping the victim’s mouth and nose and cinching a plastic bag over her head.

“Now what did she think was going to happen when she did that?” he asked.

Morales-Rodriguez told investigators she thought Ramirez-Cruz was dead before she began slicing out the fetus, using an X-Acto knife. But a medical examiner testified that blood found in Ramirez-Cruz’s abdomen suggested her heart was still beating.

Morales-Rodriguez sat in silence throughout the three days of testimony. She kept her head down and eyes open as she listened through headphones to an interpreter translating English into Spanish.

The victim’s husband, Christian Mercado, brought his family to Wisconsin from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, about two years ago. After the trial, he said little to reporters. A family friend, Penelope Solis, said the trial had been challenging for Mercado, because of graphic autopsy photos as well as surveillance video that showed his wife and Morales-Rodriguez shopping at a drugstore hours before the slaying.

“It’s been up and down for him. It’s been hard,” she said. “Some of the videos, the pictures, he’s never seen before. There’s no words to describe it.”

–

Related:

Child Cut From Womb With X-Acto Knife Kills Mother and Baby

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Comments (57)

Constantine Ivanov
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 5:16pm
I would also support a milder method of execution: instead of quartering just impale.

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Rachel
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 3:47pm
Is the boyfriend being charged with anything? He must’ve known her plan — unless he couldn’t tell the difference between a pregnant belly and a pillow.

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- Eastinfection
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 8:09pm
  What boyfriend?
  The man mentioned was the victim’s husband.
  
  Report this comment
MDECKER
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 2:53pm
On Wisconsin!

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coldnorth
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 1:17pm
another judicial precident to support abortion as murder. How would SCOTUS defend abortion as legal, when presented a case with all these previous rulings/convictions of killing unborn babies? Would they overturn all these murder convictions and call it assult?
My guess is that they would refuse to hear the case.

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Larry E
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 12:47pm
“You shall be drawn up by the neck until you shall be dead.”

Okay that would offend the ACLU and the sissy liberals, but that’s what this nasty piece of work deserves.

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sldjulius
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 12:37pm
I’ve always felt kind of silly about this, but I have an instinctive fear of going out or associating with strangers when I’m pregnant. Now when I read these stories I know exactly why. You never know what kind of psychopaths are out there. The scary thing is, she’s not the first woman to have this idea; and some of them have succeeded.

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Mannamomof4
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:44am
My thoughts and prayers are with the Mercado family as they grieve. I am also going to pray for the murderer and her family, as awkward as it may seem. I can’t help but wonder what kind of world she must have lived in to reach this level. So very sad.

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getourcountryback
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:31am
Whack job woman and reprehensible attorneys’. Throw her in a dungeon and wipe your hands.

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- tzion
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:48am
  Don’t blame the attorneys for just doing their job. At least they stick to the facts while pushing their argument. You want to see reprehensible attorneys, look at those who represented Mumia Abu Jamal. Even after a court argument proved otherwise, the lead attorney was giving lectures about how the ballistics didn’t match.
  
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schroeder123
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:17am
Death penalty is appropriate. Yes , I would volunteer.

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schroeder123
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:16am
Is this Considered..Forced Abortion ? Or Just an Abortion ..?

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- MIBUGNU2
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 12:15pm
  She would do well on the DNC campaign trail..she could
  travel with Fluck…….
  
  Report this comment
SquidVetOhio
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:40am
Has she been invited to speak at the next DNC convention yet? They would LOVE her.

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- stoptheliesbho
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:10am
  OOOOhhhh…too soon. I don’t know whether to snicker or hurt here…sheesh…
  
  Report this comment
zoro51
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:37am
EXTERMINATE THIS SNATCH NOW NO WAITING NO PITY NO MERCY for she GAVE NONE to this un born child KILL HER NOW MURDERING SNATCH! she took a LIFE not bring a life into the world…

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MOLLYPITCHER
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:36am
A terrible crime. Is this where liberals draw the line? It’s only murder when the mother doesn’t want her baby killed, but its fine if she does. Then it’s her choice, and nothing but a mass of tissue?
Will a liberal please explain?

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- floridareader
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:53am
  @Molly
  I totally agree with you. I always wonder why is it that if someone kills a pregnant woman and her baby, the court charges the thug with two counts of murder. But if a woman aborts her baby it’s a matter of “women’s health”.
  And in this story there is another mind as twisted as the killer’s: her public defender.
  “Morales argued that if her client meant for the victim to die, she would have had a plan for disposing of the body instead of stashing it in the basement”.
  What is she talking about?! That horrible woman slashed the mother’s body only because “Morales-Rodriguez wanted the baby to live so she could raise him as her own”.
  What kind of human being argues such nonsense?
  I know, I know, a lawyer.
  
  Report this comment
- JoMo
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:00am
  This was my first thought…..murder is murder!! Abortion is murder, not a “choice” one can make to kill their baby!
  
  Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:30am
These kinds of stories make me physically ill. I can’t talk about abortion for long. My moral constitution is just too sensitive.

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rexjonas
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 9:47am
How do we know that the victim was not on her way to have and abortion. Annette Morales-Rodriguez, should not have been charged with two murders, since the baby was still part of the mothers body at the time of the attack.
I know this was crude, but that is the kind of reasoning you get if you follow the hard-line pro-choice ideology of those who run the democratic party.

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- ehayes2006
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:02am
  Thankfully even the communist liberals realize that in a case where the mother was NOT intending to abort her FULL TERM fetus, then causing its premature death is STILL MURDER. I really wish this woman had committed this crime in Texas, because she would be on death row right now. That’s what she truly deserves.
  
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Landon410
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 9:07am
yep, 1 less Obama voter off the streets

and what a terribile story…. serious, she was going to do a home c section? seriously?
I bet she watch grey’s anatomy to learn up on how to do it too…

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billrow
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 9:03am
Most of them have an entitlement mentality. If they want something they take it.

Sociopaths

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mikeg642000
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 8:31am
Another Obama voter!

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ColoradoMaverick
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:37am
That’s correct… 2 counts of murder. This confirms that aborting a “fetus” is murder. Get that Obama, you support the murder of innocent babies, KILLER!!

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- turkey13
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 8:11am
  This isn’t fair – Obama told Joe The Plumber to spread the wealth! Some folks can’t have a baby so she was just getting her share.
  
  Report this comment
biohazard23
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:37am
But didn’t the pro-abortion/murder folks say a fetus was not a real human being? Gee, why the double standard? It’s A-OK to murder an unborn baby as a woman’s “choice” because it’s legally sanctioned and a convenient means to an end, as birth control? And don’t say that callous, uncaring, selfish women don’t use it as such. I see it through my work all the time, only some medical “professionals” choose to sanitize it in their diagnosis terminology. Abortion is STILL murder, just as this baby’s death was murder. Deny it all you want, but you know it’s true. That’s why you people don’t want women to see a pre-abortion ultrasound and the images of the living baby they are about to rip apart. Sick. Absolutely sick.

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- objectivetruth
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 9:55am
  Abortion of a true fetus is murder.Unless its done for true medical purposes[yes you and I both know there are a few very serious reasons this can happen.Its very rare but very real]For what its worth Ive seen some of the women you describe.They are what you would consider irresponsible.They do sometimes use abortion as birth control.They are five times more likely to have a second or third trimester abortion than those women who are responsible and practice birth control.Most of those who are responsible and have their bc fail are quite quick to take action.For these women, much like yourself, consider second and third trimester abortions, without medical cause. to be murder.
  
  Report this comment
- SquidVetOhio
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:39am
  “Most of those who are responsible and have their bc fail are quite quick to take action.”
  
  If they were responsible, they would have the baby and raise it, not kill it. Or not have sex at all if a baby is not an option. I guess we have a different definition of what “responsible” means.
  
  Report this comment
Delores at CH WV
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:36am
Now, you can understand why God doesn’t see fit to allow some people to have children. May the souls of the mother and child be protected forever from the violence of wild animals. And,I pray that God will give the father strength and healing of his heart to continue his life; knowing that he will never have to share the streets with this animal again. That is if, some worthless Judge doesn’t let this animal out of her cell to prey on others.

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- Pomona
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:00am
  Your comment….Now you can understand why God doesn’t see fit to allow some people to have children. As a Christian who had struggled with infertility issues, I just want to thank you personally for putting us in the same category as this woman. People like you are a daily challenge to our faith.
  
  Report this comment
- AmericanStrega
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 1:12pm
  Pomona
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 11:00am
  Your comment….Now you can understand why God doesn’t see fit to allow some people to have children. As a Christian who had struggled with infertility issues, I just want to thank you personally for putting us in the same category as this woman. People like you are a daily challenge to our faith.
  
  I don’t think DELORES was putting people like you in the same catagory as this killer. I do believe God has a purpose for those of us who cannot have children. I don’t know the mind of God, but for everything there is a purpose. Maybe God has a special child for you and your spouse to adopt that would otherwise not have a family. Or maybe God has a purpose for you that having a child would be a hinderance to His purpose. Pray for guidence and be patient.
  
  Report this comment
Diane TX
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:19am
Wow, what a very sad story. The husband lost both his wife and unborn son to this crazy woman. Please explain to me why “she” should be allowed to live?

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- GodFearingMama
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 8:41am
  Don’t worry, she’ll be taken care of in prison unless she stays isolated.
  
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HOOT_OWL
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:08am
What a monster..!

But here’s the questions:
If she can be charged and convicted of 2 counts of murder.

How can the pro-choice-monsters, claim that the fetus is not a living being ..?

And shouldn’t they be charged and convicted of the same . ?

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- loriann12
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:27am
  I was thinking the same thing. It must have been a conservative judge, or she would have gotten one count of murder and one count of practicing medicine without a license.
  
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- objectivetruth
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:04am
  Due to the fact that she cut open a women to claim a fetus not a zygote.If a baby can live outside the womens womb it can be considered murder.Some states will attempt prosecution even if it can’t.
  By the way some prochoice are prochoice only for the first trimester.The only reason they include the second trimester is that some women aren’t regular.Techinally they would consider it up to the 16th week only.Many of these women abhor third trimester abortions every bit as much as you.
  
  Report this comment
- SquidVetOhio
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:36am
  “If a baby can live outside the womens womb it can be considered murder”
  
  Completely false. If a woman is murdered and is pregnant (even in the first trimester) she is tried with double murder.
  
  “By the way some prochoice are prochoice only for the first trimester.”
  
  Well, at least they are only barbaric 1/3 of the time.
  
  Report this comment
BSdetector
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:03am
Should be double murder…

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razhunter100
Posted on September 21, 2012 at 6:56am
walk her out back and throw her into a wood chipper…easy.

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- razhunter100
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:06am
  another harmless illegal…
  
  Report this comment
- OLDPAINT
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:11am
  Way too fast though. This is one (two deaths) you’d want to savor, like a fine wine. Team of doctors standing by to make sure she doesn’t go too fast. too slow. Just right. Indians were pioneers in that field.
  
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- razhunter100
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:38am
  can do many at the same time…make it 1hr long …pay per view.
  plus can put chipper in very slow mode:)
  
  Report this comment
- razhunter100
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 7:42am
  or we could go drug lord way…
  have you watch while they butcher your family, then skin you alive,then your buttocks get an acid bath…
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:17am
  She is an illegal, but liberals are A OK with her being an illegal.
  
  “She kept her head down and eyes open as she listened through headphones to an interpreter translating English into Spanish.”
  
  The press is not reporting who is a legal immigration, illegal immigrant because they fear we might have confirmation bias or know actually know the truth. Instead they will feed us their mistaken their notions, soon to be reversed scientific studies & bad statistics.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on September 21, 2012 at 10:21am
  This illegal had not bothered to learn English. Worse she had cultural values that valued a baby boy over a baby girl.
  
  when we allow immigration illegal or legal we run the risk of importing ideals such as these & allowing them to become dominant thru sheer demographics.
  
  Report this comment

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