South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Dumpster baby’s mom wants confession tossed
Investigators didn’t translate all of her rights, lawyers say
A confession by a West Boca woman accused of leaving her newborn to die in a trash heap is useless, she contends, because interrogators fumbled her rights.
They didn’t warn her in Portuguese that her words could be used against her in court, lawyers say.
The baby girl survived May 8 thanks to her rescue by two maintenance workers who pulled the nearly 7-pound infant out a garbage bag. Two months later, her biological father, unaware of the birth, won full custody of the healthy child named Sarah.
But the criminal case against Rafaelle Sousa — on attempted murder and child abuse charges — still is in the early stage. She’s being held at Palm Beach County Jail on no bond.
Sousa’s attorneys are asking Circuit Judge Kirk Volker to block prosecutors from using incriminating statements she gave detectives after the crying baby’s discovery in an apartment complex trash bin.
“I put the baby in the dumpster,” she said, according to an arrest report that listed her occupation as nail technician.
At the time, the Brazilian-born woman had been living in the United States for four years and lacked the ability to “read, write or speak English,” her counsel wrote in a motion this month.
Lawyers J. Samantha Vacciana and David Casals cited two key problems with Sousa’s questioning by Palm Beach County Sheriff’s investigators Roger Fraga and Griselle Liriano-Baquerizo.
The first claim is that Fraga, serving as a Portuguese translator, did not read all of Sousa’s Miranda rights before questioning her, according to a
transcript of her interview.
The defense explains that Fraga discussed her right to remain silent and request an attorney, but left out the part about her statements being used in a potential criminal case.
“The Miranda warnings given here by Fraga were inadequate, in any language, not because of the officer’s proficiency, or lack thereof, in Portuguese, but due to the failure to give Ms. Sousa a core warning enshrined in Miranda,” Vacciana and Casals wrote. “She was never advised that any statements that she made would be used against her in court.”
The second claim concerns a written waiver of
the Miranda rights, printed in English, and included with evidence in the case. The lawyers noted that Liriano-Baquerizo put the time and date on the form, next to Sousa’s signature.
The defense says it is “abundantly clear that the officers did not translate the warnings on the preprinted Miranda card to Ms. Sousa. Therefore, the card itself is worthless as evidence to the issue of waiver in this circumstance.”
Judge Volker set a hearing for Jan. 13 on whether Sousa’s confession will be tossed. Without her statement, prosecutors would need to produce other proof that she tried to kill the baby.
The State Attorney’s Office has not yet responded to the defense’s arguments.
Prosecutors will not comment outside of court, spokesman Mike Edmondson said Thursday.
Sousa’s lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Before her arrest, the woman lived with her longtime boyfriend, Carlos Jimenes Martins, and the couple’s 3-year-old son at Alister Boca Raton apartments in the 10300 block of Boca Entrada Boulevard.
Martins told deputies that he didn’t know Sousa was pregnant, but “she whispered to him” that it was her baby in the dumpster, records show.
An arrest report does not indicate whether Sousa gave a reason for abandoning the baby. She told detectives that she “went back twice to the dumpster to make sure the baby was dead but never approached the bag because there were people in the parking area around the dumpster.”
In October, the Sheriff’s Office gave special medals to the men who saved Sarah’s life.
“She was dirty and bloody,” Sergio Vega said of the discovery he made with co-worker Yusdani Gonzalez-Delgado. “She opened her eyes and looked at us.”
They called 911, and the detective’s trail led to Sousa the next day.
Christian Romaguera, attorney for Martins, said the father has not been following Sousa’s case.
“His focus has been his kids,” Romaguera said Friday. “He has not taken a single position” about her defense.