Prosecutors say a teen mom took a photo of her baby and sent it to the child’s father before throwing the child out the window. The details were revealed Wednesday during the preliminary hearing for Antonia Lopez when a judge found enough evidence to move her to trial.
The 16-year-old is charged with felony child abuse resulting in death and if convicted faces 20 years to life in prison.
The early morning of September 30, police were called to an Omaha apartment because a newborn had been thrown out of the window.
Prosecutors say Lopez hadn't told her mother she was pregnant and told police the same at first. She told investigators she had abdominal pain, and the urge to push. After she birthed the child on her own, she told detectives she panicked and threw the child out the window one minute later.
"We have medical evidence that the child was born alive and that the defendant took these actions and those resulted in the child's death,” said Douglas Co. Attorney Don Kleine. "Certainly this child was in a fragile state at the time it was born that needed care and obviously the care wasn't provided by the defendant in this case.”
Prosecutors say she sent messages and a photo to the child’s father through Snapchat during the ordeal.
“Babe I'm having contractions in my lower abs, it hurts so much," Lopez wrote. "I'm in so much pain."
She then sent a photo of the child to the father with an emoji saying, “Babe I had a miscarriage."
"It was a girl by the way,” Lopez noted.
Lopez's family wouldn't talk after court. Her defense attorney argued the child wasn't alive when it was born, and Lopez believed she was dead.
Lopez is currently being held at the Douglas County Youth Center on $500,000 bond.
Kleine says it's unclear if the case will eventually go to juvenile court.
