Thread: Houston: Illegal Mom Denied Bond. Starved Child to Death

No bail for Beloved Doe's mother, Houston judge orders

By PEGGY O'HARE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Comments (37)

A Houston woman accused of starving her 5-year-old son and discarding his body in a trash bin five years ago was trying to flee before police arrested her last week, a prosecutor said today.

Maria Dana Martinez, 30, will remain jailed without bail as she awaits trial on a charge of felony murder, a judge decided.

State District Judge Jim Wallace denied bail after hearing the report that she had planned to flee and learning she is a Mexican citizen who is in this country illegally.

Martinez showed no emotion and listened quietly as a translator whispered in her ear during the brief probable-cause hearing.

Her son's body remained unidentified for five years until Houston police and the FBI arrested her last week, hours after the Spanish-language network Univision aired a story about the child on its international news program, AquÃ* Y Ahora.

The boy's father, who is divorced from Martinez and had not seen his son in eight years, then contacted authorities and identified him as José Bernardo Martinez.

The child, who was blind, died of starvation and dehydration, an autopsy revealed. He weighed between 18 and 28 pounds at the time of his death.

A maintenance man found his body, clad only in a diaper, tossed in a trash bin at the Willow Creek Apartments at 7575 Office City Drive on the rainy morning of March 13, 2003.

Martinez gave investigators a statement admitting the boy was in her care and custody when he died, prosecutor Connie Spence told the judge.

Martinez admitted to authorities that she then placed the child's body in a bag and tossed it in a trash bin, Spence said. The mother also lied to her family about the child's whereabouts, Spence said.

Wallace found probable cause to refer the case to a grand jury for review.

Martinez's attorney, Rick Gonzalez, declined to comment, saying he was just appointed to represent her this morning.

peggy.ohare@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5739232.html

Is this the kind of illegal alien taking care of thousands of American children? If she would do this to her own what could she do to yours?

Family Values?

I thought they were coming to America so their children wouldn't starve!

The things that I really want to post about this would offend almost everyone. So ill just say Rot in Hell!!!!!!!!!!!!