Woman Charged With Second Degree Murder Of Baby Angel

Spring Valley Police arrested Maria Oliva Guaman-Guaman of Spring Valley late Tuesday and charged her with second-degree murder in the death of Baby Angel, the newborn boy found at a Westchester County recycling facility in November.

Guaman-Guaman, 23, is also the mother of a two-a-half-year old girl who is now in foster care. Guaman-Guaman, a petite woman with black hair reaching to her waist, sobbed during much of the child neglect proceeding in Rockland Family Court on Wednesday afternoon. The girl’s father, Felipe Santos of Nanuet, also appeared in court and requested the child be placed with him. 

Judge Sherri Eisenpress ruled the toddler should remain in foster care and scheduled a hearing for January 16, 2014.

Guaman-Guaman lived at 41 North Myrtle Ave in Spring Valley with several family members. The house is not far from the convenience store dumpster where police believe Guaman-Guaman allegedly disposed of the infant boy’s body in November.

Attorney Jim Sexton, who is representing Guaman-Guaman for the child neglect case said she has not been previously accused of a crime or arrested. He said she had been working at a bakery on the Hillburn/Suffern border since 2010.

Sexton said his client, who does not speak English, was overwhelmed and probably was unaware of services in Rockland County that could have helped her with the pregnancy.

“This is a pathetic sad overwhelmed person,” he said.

Sexton said she is very worried about her daughter.

“I think in a case like this it would be an oversimplification to say that there’s you know good guys and bad guys,” said Sexton, who is a pro bono attorney for Guaman-Guaman on the family court case. “It’s a little too early in the process I think to be able to say exactly what happened here. But I think without question we have at least three victims right now.”

You have a child who was the victim of a crime. You have a two year old who’s now been taken from the only mother that she’s ever known. And you have a woman here who is clearly overwhelmed worried about her two year old child and who is now in the system both the criminal justice system and the family court system on a neglect petition. So this is a situation where there’s just victim on victim on victim.”

She is being held in the Rockland County Jail without bail. Spring Valley Police worked on the case along with Westchester County and Elmsford police.

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