After high school cheerleader Alexee Trevizo admitted to putting the body of a newborn baby in a hospital trash can, a court has ruled that the confession captured on police bodycam footage can’t be used by prosecutors in her murder case.
The justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously voted to uphold the Fifth Judicial District Court’s decision that Trevizo’s confession in front of a police officer made in her hospital room was protected under doctor-patient confidentiality, according to People.
Police spoke to Trevizo’s doctor before she and two officers entered the room to tell her and her mother that they found a dead newborn. “I’m sorry, it came out of me; I didn’t know what to do,” Trevizo, now 22, reportedly responded.
Additionally, the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision that surveillance video of Trevizo inside the hospital and any other bodycam footage are not admissible in court.
Due to the decision, prosecutors now have to rebuild their case against Trevizo after they previously argued that the conversation between Trevizo, her mother and medical staff should be allowed at trial.
Trevizo reportedly made the confession before she was read her Miranda rights. However, prosecutors argued that she did not have to be Mirandized because she made the comments in front of police and not directly to a specific officer.
“Despite her unresolved medical crisis, Dr. [Heather] Vaskas, without authorization, ambushed Defendant, bringing with her two armed officers who stood in the doorway of her hospital room, and disclosed her personal medical information to all persons in the room without warning,” Justice Michael E. Vigil wrote of the court’s decision, per the outlet.
Vigil added that Trevizo was “not given the opportunity to exclude anyone from the room before Dr. Vaskas discussed her condition in the presence of others,” and in a “compromised medical condition.” Because of this, the court said they “cannot conclude that Defendant’s waiver of her physician-patient privilege was voluntary.”
Trevizo, who was a high school senior at the time, went to Artesia General Hospital for treatment for severe back pain on the morning of January 27, 2023.
As medical staff began to run tests, she was given some morphine for the pain.
While waiting for the results, she allegedly left her hospital room to use the bathroom and returned as if everything was normal.
When staff found the baby, they contacted police about a possible crime and the officers reported to Trevizo’s hospital room.
“We discovered a dead baby in the bathroom,” Vaskas told Trevizo before she allegedly admitted to the crime.
Trevizo’s mother then asked “how big” the baby was, and the charge nurse said the baby appeared to be “full term.” Trevizo allegedly responded by saying, “Nothing was crying.”
“Where did you put the baby at? Tell me the truth. You put it in the bag?” Trevizo’s mother asked her.
Trevizo then confirmed that she did put the newborn in the bag and her mother asked her to clarify which bag. “The trash bag,” Trevizo said in the bodycam footage.
She was charged based on that conversation, as well as hospital security camera footage that showed Trevizo entering and exiting the bathroom where the baby was discovered. The court’s new ruling now makes all of that evidence inadmissible.
At the time of the incident, Trevizo insisted that the baby was stillborn and she was allowed to return to school. However, she was charged after the autopsy report determined that the child had air in his lungs and there was evidence of a hemorrhage consistent with hypoxia.
Prosecutors argued that the autopsy findings were inconsistent with Trevizo’s claim that the baby wasn’t breathing.
Trevizo was ultimately arrested on May 10, 2023, and was charged with first-degree murder.
Trevizo’s lawyer previously said she is innocent of the crime. She allegedly did not know she was pregnant until she gave birth in the hospital bathroom.
A court date has not yet been set for the case.
