Baby sitter charged in baby’s death

Woman admitted using heroin, SF police say

SANTA FE — A baby sitter who police say admitted using heroin while watching two children is accused of having caused the death of an infant at a Santa Fe motel Saturday morning.

Rachel Smith, 25, is charged with abuse of a child resulting in death, obstruction of an investigation, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana after 3-month-old Jonathan Valenzuela died while he was in her care at the Thunderbird Inn on Cerrillos Road. Jonathan was pronounced dead by Christus St. Vincent Medical Center doctors around 7 a.m. Saturday. An Office of the Medical Investigator agent told Santa Fe police the baby apparently died of asphyxiation, possibly from Smith rolling on top of him while they were sleeping.

Smith originally told police that Jonathan and his 2-year-old sister were her children, but she later admitted that she was watching them for her 17-year-old friend. She is in the Santa Fe County jail, with bail set at $50,000.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Magistrate Court, officers responded to the motel around 6 a.m. Saturday after witnesses reported a woman was banging on doors and saying that her baby was dying. When police arrived they found Jonathan with no signs of life and transported him to the hospital.

Smith told officers that Jonathan was crying at about 5:30 a.m. so she fed him with a bottle. She said milk started coming out of his nose and he was making a “gurgling” noise. She said she later woke up after briefly falling asleep and noticed that Jonathan “didn’t appear to be alive,” the complaint says.

Smith admitted to shooting heroin three times in the bathroom of the motel Friday and to smoking marijuana while the children were there. She started having withdrawals while being interviewed at the police station and had to be taken to the hospital. Police searched the motel room and reported finding used syringes, a tourniquet, suspected crack and marijuana pipes, a bag full of marijuana joints and a container with marijuana.

Smith was previously convicted of residential and non-residential burglary as well as larceny in September 2012. She was charged with bringing contraband into a jail in December 2012, but that case was later dropped.