A 19-year-old woman accused of killing her newborn baby in the bathroom of an emergency room is suing the hospital, claiming the treatment she received caused a stillbirth.
Alexee Trevizo faces a first-degree murder charge and one count of tampering with evidence for the baby’s death last January. Surveillance video recorded Trevizo walking quickly to a restroom in the ER with her hand near her rear end.
More than 20 minutes later, nurses unlocked the bathroom door and found a bloody mess. A cleaning person found the baby boy in the trash can in a garbage bag with another bag placed on top of him. A death certificate shows Trevizo named the baby “Alex.”
In a wrongful death lawsuit filed in New Mexico, Trevizo accuses the nursing staff of giving her several medications that caused the baby to stop breathing before birth. Trevizo was given Morphine and Ketolorac for pain and Zofran and Ondansetron for nausea.
But former Philadelphia County homicide prosecutor and current medical malpractice attorney Jerry Dugan shredded the claims in an episode of Law&Crime’s Sidebar podcast.
“The approach that the defendant seems to be taking through her lawyer seems to be both desperate and dangerous,” Dugan said.
Dugan said the amount of morphine in the infant’s system was so low that it would not cause death. Trevizo’s attorney told DailyMail.com that the baby boy had .19 nanograms of morphine in his system at autopsy. He also said the baby tested positive for COVID-19 and influenza.
“This was 1900s of one billionth of a gram of morphine in this infant system,” Dugan said. “It is absolutely not a deviation from the standard of care in the emergency room to administer morphine to someone who was known to be pregnant.”
“Big Mac Defense”
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Trevizo’s lawyer, Gary Mitchell, told Law&Crime in May that his client did not know she was pregnant.
Dugan balked at what he called “the Big Mac defense.” Trevizo’s lawyer claimed she gained weight because she and her boyfriend ate McDonald’s daily. Photos of Trevizo cheering at basketball games have circulated online, showing a noticeable baby bump.
“I think jury nullification here could very well result in the jury when they see this photograph of the cheerleading defendant,” Dugan said. “And then to suggest, well, that’s innocent enough because my boyfriend and I go to McDonald’s every day. I can’t conceive of a jury in this country saying, ‘Oh, that’s a reasonable defense.’ The hospital killed this baby. I just think that defense is going nowhere.”
Artesia General Hospital has not responded to a request for comment on the lawsuit. A supervising nurse told police the night the baby died that Trevizo had lied to them. He said she claimed she wasn’t sexually active.
“She’s lied to us the entire time,” the nurse said.
Meanwhile, Gary Mitchell stands by Trevizo’s claims.
“This is a situation in which the hospital failed her. The nurses and doctors failed her,” Mitchell previously told Law&Crime.
Trevizo’s trial on the criminal charges is scheduled for February 2024.
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