A Texas mother charged with killing a toddler who was found dead in a dumpster she reported he’d gone missing during a trip to a park has reached a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
Laura Villalon, 38 — also known as Laura Sanchez — has agreed to plead guilty to injury to a child with a deadly weapon in exchange for the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office’s recommendtion that she be sentenced to 50 years in prison, her attorney, Ross Hunt, said Tuesday, according to KWTX.
She is expected to plead guilty on May 4, ahead of her scheduled May 15 trial date, Hunt said.
An autopsy report said that 2-year-old Frankie Gonzalez had blunt force injuries, forehead and scalp contusions, a forehead laceration, multiple contusions to his arms and legs, three broken ribs, and a broken right arm, all about a month before his death. The autopsy report said he appeared to have been smothered or asphyxiated and determined the cause of death to be homicidal violence, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Investigators said Villalon slammed the boy’s head into a wall and then stuffed his body into a closet on May 28, keeping him there for two days before wrapping the boy in a dozen trash bags and throwing him in the trash. On June 1, she reported him missing, telling police she briefly turned away while at Waco’s Cameron Park and he disappeared.
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The next day, she led investigators to his body.
The child’s father, Lorenzo Gonzalez pleaded guilty last month to abandoning a child and injury to a child. He was sentenced to two concurrent, 10-year prison terms and is expected to be deported when he’s released, KWTX said.
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[Featured image: Frankie Gonzalez/Facebook]
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