OMAR MARITZA-CRUZ - Full term - Milwaukee WI

MILWAUKEE - The family of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz is in shock. Reality
hasn’t set in that the 23-year-old mother and her unborn son were
murdered in a heinous way.

Christian Mercado is Ramirez-Cruz’s husband. He had his stepmother,
Darla Guiterrez, speak on his behalf because he does not speak English.
“He wants everybody to remember that she was a good person. She never
did anything bad to anybody and she would help anybody out if they
needed help,” Guiterrez said.

“We still can't believe it. We know it's true but we can't believe it
and the whole family is taking it real hard,” Guiterrez explained.

Police say a 33-year-old woman murdered Ramirez-Cruz and forcibly removed her baby, then tried to pass it off as her own.

"She's pregnant. There was proof she was pregnant. There was baby
stuff in their house," said Keila Perez, who said she was a neighbor and
friend of the suspect.

That suspect could be charged Monday, and the Milwaukee Police
Department tells TODAY'S TMJ4's Melissa McCrady that they were preparing
their case to give to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office
today.

Ramirez-Cruz’s body was discovered late Friday inside the basement of
the suspect’s home on the city’s south side. That woman is now in
custody, but hasn’t been criminally charged.

“I would like to see her put away for the rest of her life for what she did to her and the baby,” Guiterrez said.

Guiterrez says Ramirez-Cruz was scheduled to give birth on October
16th to a baby boy they named Omar. It would have been her fourth child.
They had a baby shower last month and the nursery already set up.

Mercado says his wife had mild contractions Thursday morning. She
left the house around 9:15 a.m. to run a quick errand then return home.
Mercado went to work, but asked her to call him if she wanted to go to
the hospital. He says around 11 a.m. he called Ramirez-Cruz, but she
didn’t answer.

Thursday night the family started an all out search.

“We went out to all the hospitals (and) showed the picture of her and nothing,” Guiterrez said.

Mercado then filed a police report. He says more than 24 hours later
he got a phone call from police saying a body they found matched her
description.

Mercado and Ramirez-Cruz have three kids ages 6 and younger.

“Right now he's holding it together for the kids,” Guiterrez said.

The family says police showed them a picture of the suspect when they went to positively identify Ramirez-Cruz’s body.

“No, we don't know her. We don't know anything about her,” Guiterrez insisted.

Now they’re left with many unanswered questions and Ramirez-Cruz’s
three kids are left without their mother and little brother, forever.

Mercado is seeking help. As a hard working single father, he doesn’t know how he’s going to survive alone.

The family says they plan to set up a "Maritza Ramirez" fund to help take care of funeral costs and other expenses.
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/131424788.html

Wisconsin police
charged a 33-year-old Milwaukee woman with murder on Monday over
accusations she cut a full-term fetus from its mother's womb in an
attempt to steal the baby and claim it as her own.

Annette Morales-Rodriguez faces
two counts of first-degree homicide in district court, accused of using
an Exacto knife to cut the fetus from a 23-year-old woman's abdomen on
Thursday. Neither the mother nor the baby, a boy, survived.
Morales-Rodriguez
told detectives her boyfriend wanted a baby boy but she was unable to
get pregnant, then feigned a pregnancy and panicked when it was time to
have the baby, authorities said.
She
drove around her neighborhood, locating the victim outside a public
agency frequented by pregnant women, and offered her a ride to a local
drug store, according to the complaint.
Morales-Rodriguez
then told the pregnant woman she needed to stop at home to change her
shoes. While the victim was inside using the bathroom, Morales-Rodriguez
struck her in the head several times with a baseball bat, the complaint
said.
Court documents said she
then strangled her and taped her mouth, hands and feet with duct tape
before trying to cut out the fetus.
"She
cut at the bikini line attempting to duplicate the process she had seen
on the Discovery Channel, depicting a caesarean section birth," the
district attorney wrote in the complaint.
Morales-Rodriguez
then called the paramedics to report that she had just given stillbirth
to a child in the shower, the complaint said.
"She
said that she had just given birth and the baby was not breathing,"
Police Chief Ed Flynn said during a news conference over the weekend.
The baby was pronounced dead at the scene and Morales-Rodriguez was taken to the hospital by paramedics.
Police
later learned that the woman was not the mother of the child.
Investigators returned to Morales-Rodriguez' home where they discovered
the mother's body in the basement by the hot water heater.
Morales-Rodriguez, who was being held on $1 million bond, faces life in prison if convicted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/11/us-crime-wisconsin-fetus-idUSTRE79A0CR20111011

MILWAUKEE —
Desperate
to give her boyfriend a son but unable to conceive, Annette
Morales-Rodriguez faked a pregnancy for months, court documents say,
then began trolling Milwaukee's streets for pregnant women in hopes of
stealing an unborn baby.
After two days of searching, the
33-year-old woman finally spotted Maritza Ramirez-Cruz, who was just a
week from her due date. Morales-Rodriguez lured the young Puerto Rican
immigrant into her home, according to court documents, and beat her with
a baseball bat before cutting her full-term fetus from her womb with an
X-Acto knife, killing both the mother and the baby.
Morales-Rodriguez
now faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide while armed and
first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed. She
faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.
She told
investigators she had grown increasingly desperate as her own supposed
due date approached. She said she planned for two weeks to find a
pregnant woman, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday.
Her
search started last Wednesday, court documents say. On Thursday, she
drove around a nonprofit organization that provides Hispanics with
health care and found 23-year-old Ramirez-Cruz, who was pregnant with
her fourth child and had gone to her doctor's office to drop off some
paperwork.
Morales-Rodriguez told investigators she offered
Ramirez-Cruz a ride, and the younger woman accepted, the criminal
complaint said.
Telling Ramirez-Cruz she needed to change her
shoes, she drove them to her weathered two-story house on Milwaukee's
south side. Ramirez-Cruz went inside to use the bathroom. When she
emerged, Morales-Rodriguez bludgeoned the pregnant woman with a baseball
bat, the complaint said.
As Ramirez-Cruz lay on the floor,
Morales-Rodriguez straddled her, choked her until she passed out,
duct-taped her hands, feet, mouth and nose and put a plastic bag over
head, according to the complaint. Then she sliced into Ramirez-Cruz's
stomach with an X-Acto knife and pulled out the baby, the complaint
said.
She told detectives she was trying to imitate a procedure
she had seen on the Discovery Channel, the complaint said. When she
pulled the fetus out, the baby wasn't breathing, Morales-Rodriguez said.
She then dragged Ramirez-Cruz's body into the basement and hid it,
according to the complaint.
She smeared some of Ramirez-Cruz's
blood on her thighs to make people think she, Morales-Rodriguez, was
bleeding from giving birth. She called 911 and said she'd given birth to
a stillborn. She was taken to a hospital, but left before she was fully
examined, the complaint said.
An autopsy the next day revealed
the baby wasn't the product of a natural birth. Police returned to
Morales-Rodriguez's house and took her back to the hospital, where an
examination verified she hadn't given birth, according to the complaint.
Police later found Ramirez-Cruz's body in Moralez-Rodriguez's basement, the complaint said.
During
a brief court appearance Monday afternoon, Morales-Rodriguez stood mute
as her bail was set at $1 million. Online court records didn't list an
attorney for her.
Maria Garcia, 44, who lives next to
Morales-Rodriguez and described her as her best friend, said she
believed Morales-Rodriguez was pregnant. She even felt her belly, she
said. Other neighbors said they saw her toting baby toys into the house.
"I
don't know what she had in her mind when she did that," Garcia said,
tears filling her eyes. "I'm sorry for what she did to this girl. Nobody
had to take a life."
The last time Garcia saw her, on Oct. 3,
Morales-Rodriguez told her she was going to have a cesarean section in
two weeks, Garcia said. But she also seemed depressed, refusing to come
out of her house to even join Garcia for a walk.
"She just wanted to be in the house," Garcia said, tears filling her eyes. "I'm so confused, I don't know what to do."
Carlos
Mercado, 59, is the grandfather of the other three children his son,
Christian, had with Ramirez-Cruz. He said the couple were childhood
sweethearts in Puerto Rico.
"My heart, oh my God, it's hurting me. I can't sleep," Mercado said.
His
son, who declined to speak with reporters who visited his home Monday,
doesn't have any money and now he must raise the couple's other children
alone. The oldest is only six.
"He'll have to be the mother and
father. I don't know how he's going to make it. He's got to grow them
up, take them to school, get them in the shower," Mercado said. "He's
real sad. He's real hurt."
So-called "fetal abduction" cases are
extremely rare, police say, but far from unheard of. Cases of women
taking an unborn child from a mother's womb were reported in
Massachusetts and Oregon in 2009, in Pennsylvania in 2007, in Illinois
in 2006 and Missouri in 2004.
Morales-Rodriguez is due back in court on Oct. 19 for a preliminary hearing.
http://www.wftv.com/ap/ap/crime/documents-wis-woman-hatched-plan-to-steal-baby/nFD6C/

Oct 19, 7:54 PM EDT

Insanity plea possible in fetal-abduction case

By DINESH RAMDE
Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A Milwaukee woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and cutting out her full-term fetus in the hopes of raising the child as her own might plead insanity, one of her lawyers said.

Annette Morales-Rodriguez, who is charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, sat stoically in a wheelchair during a pretrial hearing on Wednesday while an interpreter relayed in Spanish what was happening. A court commissioner bound her over for trial and maintained her $1 million bail. She's scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 2.

After the hearing, one of her three lawyers, Robert D'Arruda, said the defense would be scrutinizing the investigation into the Oct. 6 slaying of 23-year-old Maritza Ramirez-Cruz and her fetus, and that they would consider using an insanity defense.

"I'm not saying we are going to do it, but that's something we're going to discuss and may do at the next court date," he said.

Morales-Rodriguez, 33, would receive mandatory life sentences if convicted of the homicide charges, although a judge could grant her the possibility of parole. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

D'Arruda said his client has been "very depressed" and has been eating poorly in jail.

Investigators contend that Morales-Rodriguez was desperate to give her boyfriend a son but was unable to conceive. She's accused of luring Ramirez-Cruz into her car, taking her home, beating her with a baseball bat and cutting her full-term fetus, a boy, from her womb. Both mother and fetus died.

Forensic pathologist Wieslawa Tlomak testified Wednesday that neither autopsy has been completed, but that preliminary indications suggest that Ramirez-Cruz died of a combination of blood loss and strangulation, and "it appears the child died because the mother died."

Morales-Rodriguez's boyfriend, 30-year-old Jose R. Chaidez-Montenegro, told the medical examiner that she told him about six months ago that she was pregnant but that she was evasive about the gender and approximate due date.

According to investigators, Morales-Rodriguez grew increasingly desperate as the supposed due date approached, and she began plotting to "find a pregnant woman and take the baby and make it hers." She chose Ramirez-Cruz after spotting her outside a nonprofit organization that provides Hispanics with health care. She picked the younger woman up on Oct. 6 and took her home, where she bludgeoned her, choked her until she passed out and cut the baby from her womb with a small blade.

Police say she told them the baby wasn't breathing so she called 911 and reported that she'd given birth to a stillborn child. She was taken to a hospital, where she refused treatment and left.

An autopsy revealed that the baby wasn't born naturally. The mother's uterus was attached to the baby and had been cut out by force, the complaint said, and both ovaries and Fallopian tubes were still attached to the uterus and placenta.

Officers returned to Morales-Rodriguez's house that day and took her back to the hospital. An examination verified she hadn't given birth and police then questioned her.

Milwaukee police Det. Rodolfo Gomez testified that when he visited her in the hospital, her first words to him were that "she was sorry for the girl" and she wanted to know how much time she'd be getting. She later told him a girl was dead in her basement and that the baby wasn't hers, he said.

After that she was taken into custody, read her rights and interrogated further.

D'Arruda, her defense attorney, said he plans to question why police conducted the hospital interrogation without having read his client her rights.

"We're going to file a motion challenging her statement, saying police basically jumped the gun," he said. "They should have read her her rights before they talked to her in the hospital."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MOTHER_AND_FETUS_KILLED_HEARING?SITE=OKBAR&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Wisconsin Woman Accused of Killing Pregnant Woman And Fetus Pleads Insanity
Published November 02, 2011
| Associated Press

MILWAUKEE -- An insanity plea has been entered on behalf of a Milwaukee woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and trying to steal her full-term fetus.
The lawyer for 33-year-old Annette Morales-Rodriguez entered pleas Wednesday of not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
Attorney Robert D'Arruda says he's not aware that his client has a history of mental illness. But he says he wants her to have access to an examination from a mental-health professional.
Morales-Rodriguez is charged with two counts of intentional homicide, including homicide of an unborn child. If convicted she faces two life sentences.
D'Arruda says he plans to request a change of venue because of pretrial publicity. He also plans to file motions challenging incriminating statements his client made to investigators.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/02/wisconsin-woman-accused-killing-pregnant-woman-and-fetus-pleads-insanity/#ixzz1ceQwoE5E

Woman Accused Of Fetal Abduction Will Get New Mental Exam

Annette Morales-Rodriguez Accused Of Killing Mariza Ramirez, Unborn Baby

POSTED: 2:34 pm CST December 16, 2011
UPDATED: 5:39 pm CST December 16, 2011

MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee woman accused of killing a pregnant woman to steal her unborn baby will undergo a new mental exam.
Annette Morales-Rodriguez, 33, is pleading insanity, but a state doctor said she doesn't show signs of a mental defect.
Friday a judge agreed to let the defense bring in their own doctor, to conduct another mental exam. The report will be due Jan. 27.
Defense attorney Patrick Rupich said the state's doctor generally does only a cursory exam, whereas their expert will be more thorough
Morales-Rodriguez is charged with two counts of intentional homicide, in the death of Mariza Ramirez and her unborn child.
The defense said it still plans to file two motions: one to have Morales-Rodriguez's statements to investigators ruled inadmissible, and a second to request a change of venue.

Read more: http://www.wisn.com/news/30015552/detail.html#ixzz1gntU21tx