From: catpandaddy on
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7047024.html

A Houston mother of two was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison for
felony murder for leaving her newborn son to die in an emergency room
bathroom trash can in 2008.

Genny Granados denied being pregnant for nine months, including when she
was taken to the hospital for severe abdominal pain shortly before
midnight Feb. 9, 2008, prosecutors said in closing arguments.

“She took this angel, this healthy full-term little boy, and she threw
him away,” Assistant Harris County District Attorney Traci Bennett said
as she held up a picture of the dead child. “It's her fault; it's all
her fault. She's the one who is responsible.”
Stream of obscenities

As Bennett pointed at Granados, 31, the woman burst forth with a stream
of obscenities shouted at the prosecutor.

Bennett told jurors that Granados could have used that voice to tell
people at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital that she was in labor.

The woman's attorney, Elihu Dodier, said hospital workers who did not
notice that Granados was giving birth were responsible for the infant's
death.

“This child would not have died but for the failing of the emergency
room personnel,” Dodier said. “That's what happens when an emergency
room fails to act.”

He said a disoriented Granados gave birth alone in the bathroom and
cleaned the baby, cutting the umbilical cord with scissors she had in
her purse. Because Granados lost so much blood, she became confused and
nauseated, Dodier said.
A trail of blood

Dodier has said Granados told him the child slipped into the open trash
can next to the changing table.

A custodian cleaning the bathroom found the baby after following a trail
of blood from Granados, who was in a wheelchair outside the bathroom.

The infant, who was brain-dead when he was found, died 11 days later
when doctors shut off his life support.

Felony murder may be charged when a death occurs during the commission
of a felony. The underlying felony in this case was child abandonment.