| For Immediate Release Case # 10CF0888
May 1, 2012 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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TEEN MOTHER CONVICTED OF MURDERING NEWBORN BY STABBING BABY DAUGHTER MULTIPLE TIMES AND HIDING CORPSE IN CLOSET
SANTA ANA – A teen mother was convicted today of murdering her newborn immediately after giving birth by stabbing her multiple times and hiding the corpse in her closet. Yoselin Torres Tovar, Fullerton, 20, pleaded guilty on the second day of jury trial to one felony count of second degree murder with a sentencing enhancement allegation for the use of a deadly weapon. She will be sentenced to 16 years to life in state prison at her sentencing June 1, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-35, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
Between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. on April 18, 2010, Tovar, then-18 years old, gave birth to a baby girl in the bathroom of her family’s Fullerton home. The defendant stabbed the newborn multiple times, wrapped her body, and placed her in Tovar’s bedroom closet. No one in her family knew she was pregnant. When her family saw blood on the defendant, they took her to St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton.
Upon arriving at the hospital, doctors examined Tovar and determined that she had just given birth and alerted police. Shortly after, Tovar expelled the placenta at the hospital. That same night, Fullerton Police officers found the discarded newborn in the defendant’s bedroom closet.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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