| For Immediate Release Case # 10CF0852
April 9, 2010 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
WOMAN TO BE ARRAIGNED FOR MURDER OF HER NEWBORN BY DROWNING BABY IN TOILET AND THROWING BODY IN TRASH
SANTA ANA – A woman will be arraigned Monday on charges for murdering her newborn immediately after giving birth by drowning the baby in her bathroom toilet and throwing the body into a trash can. Yanira Valderrama, Fullerton, 20, is charged with one felony count of murder and one felony count of child abuse with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in state prison. The People will be requesting Valderrama be held on $1 million bail at her arraignment Monday, April 12, 2010, at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. The time and Department are to be determined.
At approximately 10 p.m., on Sept. 4, 2009, Valderrama, then 19 years old, is accused of giving birth to a baby boy in her bathroom of her family’s Fullerton home. The defendant is accused of putting the newborn in her bathroom toilet when she heard her mother try to enter from the connecting bedroom. No one in her family knew she was pregnant. After Valderrama’s mother left the bedroom, the defendant is accused of wrapping the newborn in a t-shirt and throwing the baby into a bedroom trashcan. Shortly after, Valderrama is accused of expelling the placenta and hiding it underneath the bathroom sink.
Later that night, Valderrama’s mother entered the bathroom and saw, the large amounts blood, and called 9-1-1. The paramedics arrived and transported the placenta, which her mother found under the sink, and the defendant to the hospital. Upon arriving at Anaheim Memorial Hospital, doctors examined Valderrama and determined that she had just given birth and alerted police. That same night, Anaheim police found the discarded newborn in the defendant’s bedroom trash can.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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