5 years for Mesa teen mom who threw baby away

With round, soft cheeks and silky black hair, the defendant convicted of throwing her newborn baby out a window in 2013 looked more like a child herself as she dabbed her eyes in the courtroom, waiting to hear her fate.

Perez was charged as an adult following the October 2013 incident and ultimately pleaded guilty to attempted murder and child abuse.

Maricopa County attorney James Seeger noted Perez’s young age as cause for leniency, but said there were troubling factors about the case that could not be overlooked. Perez hid her pregnancy, he said, an indication that the girl had planned the crime in advance.

Seeger recommended the presumptive term of five years and said a lifetime of probation would be appropriate, given the circumstances.

“She’s still a young woman,” he said. “She very well may be in the position to be pregnant again.”

Several members of Perez’s family sat in the Maricopa County Superior courtroom gallery behind her Tuesday, but only her defense attorney, Melinda Kovacs, chose to speak on her behalf.

Kovacs denied that her client’s actions were premeditated. Rather, she said, they were the product of a confused 16-year-old girl who had suffered immense physical and emotional trauma after delivering her own baby.

As irrational as it seemed in hindsight, she said, Perez had planned to hide the child and retrieve it later.

“Samantha did not have any malicious intent,” Kovacs said. “She recognizes the harm she placed the child in.”

Kovacs asked instead for a mitigated sentence and 15 years of probation.

In a brief interview after the hearing, Kovacs noted that the child is now thriving and suffered no permanent injuries.

The case helped raise awareness of Arizona's Baby Safe Haven Law, which offers mothers a 72-hour time frame in which they can drop a newborn off at a hospital, fire station, adoption agency and some churches without fear of prosecution, but an incident last weekend in which a dead newborn was discovered in a Glendale dumpster has advocates pointing to the need for even more awareness.

According to court records, paramedics responded on the afternoon of Oct. 6, 2013, to the east Mesa home Perez shares with her parents after receiving a call about a teenager bleeding in her home.

Paramedics immediately suspected that Perez had given birth or had a miscarriage, according to court documents, but the girl denied being pregnant.

Sheriff's deputies were called to the home and cleared the home to search for signs of a child.

While deputies were searching the bathroom where Perez had given birth, they heard a "faint cry" coming from the other side of the bathroom wall.

The deputies figured out that the bathroom window led to a storage shed that was attached to the home and found the shed cluttered with bicycles and other equipment.

After they cleared the shed, the deputies found a newborn girl lying on the concrete floor near the bathroom window with injuries to her head and a portion of the umbilical cord still attached.

Paramedics returned and took the infant to a hospital, where she was treated for a skull fracture and poor prenatal care.

Perez continued to ask why she was in the hospital and denied being pregnant or having given birth, authorities say.

Perez quietly apologized for her actions Tuesday morning, shortly before hearing her sentence.

Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Richard Nothwehr said he was concerned that Perez not only hid the baby outside but continued to lie about its whereabouts when assistance arrived.

Nothwehr found the aggravating and mitigating factors in the case to be equal and agreed with the state’s suggested sentence structure. Further, he said, upon release she is to have no contact with the victim.

The commissioner softened to a fatherly tone near the close of the hearing and commended Perez for attending classes while in jail and improving her grades.

“You’ve got to keep doing those things while incarcerated and after you’re incarcerated,” he said. “Good luck, Ms. Perez.”