Mother Charged After Infant Found in Dumpster

Mother Faces Murder Charge in Infant’s Death

A 19-year-old Los Angeles mother has been charged with murder after her 4-month-old daughter was found unresponsive inside a trash bin in South Los Angeles. Takiyah Rochelle Babers also faces one felony count of assault on a child causing death, according to prosecutors and local reporting.

Los Angeles police arrested Babers after detectives identified her as the infant’s biological mother. She is being held on $2 million bail, and her arraignment was continued until Oct. 30. She has not entered a plea to the charges.

A Neighbor Found the Infant on Alba Street

Police said officers responded around 10:30 p.m. Sept. 28 to the 5200 block of Alba Street after receiving a call for a death investigation. Officers found the infant unresponsive inside a trash bin, and Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics transported the child to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

CBS Los Angeles reported that a woman searching for recyclables discovered the baby. The child was wrapped in a blanket when officers arrived, according to the station.

The LAPD’s Juvenile Division-Abused Child Section took over the investigation. Detectives identified Babers and arrested her without incident, initially booking her on suspicion of murder before the case was presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The Baby Had Been Living With Foster Grandparents

CBS Los Angeles reported that Laura Lacy and her husband had been caring for the infant, whom the foster family called Luna. Lacy said Babers was her foster daughter and that the family had allowed Babers to visit the baby.

Lacy told the station that she and her husband brought the infant to Babers’ home on the day she died. After hearing that a baby had been found nearby, the foster family went back to the housing complex and could not locate the child.

The family remained near the scene as police investigated. Officers later arrested Babers, shifting the case from an unidentified infant death into a homicide prosecution involving the child’s biological mother.

Medical Examiner Ruled the Death a Homicide

CBS Los Angeles reported that the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined the infant died from blunt trauma. The district attorney’s filing charges Babers with murder and assault on a child causing death.

The charges describe the prosecution’s allegations and do not establish guilt. A court will determine whether the state can prove the allegations, and the current public reporting does not establish a motive.

The case involves two separate family relationships around the same child: Babers as the biological mother and the foster grandparents who said they had cared for the infant during her first four months. That history is now part of the factual timeline investigators and prosecutors are presenting as the criminal case moves forward.

The medical examiner’s finding supplied a critical development after the first police release. LAPD initially announced the arrest while the death investigation was still being assembled for prosecutors, and the later ruling that the infant died from blunt trauma became part of the basis for the homicide case described by CBS Los Angeles.

Babers’ scheduled arraignment was postponed rather than completed on Oct. 1, so she had not entered a plea at the latest verified update. The $2 million bail amount remained in place while the case moved toward the Oct. 30 hearing.

The LAPD said the investigation remains ongoing and asked anyone with information to contact the department’s Abused Child Unit. Babers remains in custody pending further court proceedings, while the infant’s death is now the subject of a murder case in Los Angeles County.

References: Suspect Arrested in Homicide of 4-Month-Old Infant NR26200ti | South LA Mother Charged With Murder After Her Infant Was Found in Dumpster | Mother Charged With Murder in Death of 4-Month-Old Baby Found in South L.A. Dumpster