Police in Texas put a 17-year-old girl in a “secure location” and charged her father with new crimes after they were linked to a baby found in a Walmart bathroom trash can.
On Tuesday, the Kingsville Police Department added charges of tampering with a witness and messing with physical evidence against Jerry Lee Martinez, 45. He had been charged before with criminal neglect for leaving or endangering a child. Martinez was given a $300,000 bond by a judge on Thursday. He is still in the Kleberg County Jail.
Police said in a press release that his daughter is “not in custody and is currently in a secure location.”
A detective with the Kingsville police told the court on Thursday that Martinez is a danger to the community, and police plan to file more charges in the case, according to a story from local NBC affiliate KRIS. She also said Martinez made threats against a witness who was not named.
It is said that Martinez’s lawyer said the case against his client “appears very serious.”
Police in Kingsville said that police in the town of Mathis are also looking into what happened. Martinez and his family live in Mathis, which is about 50 miles north of the Walmart store where the baby was found. KRIS reports that Martinez was told not to talk to his daughter or his family.
As was already said, workers at Walmart called the cops on Monday just before 10:30 p.m. after finding a baby in a trash can in the bathroom. The baby was being saved by workers, and he or she was then taken to a nearby hospital, according to cops. A press statement says that doctors said the baby was dead.
Police watched a surveillance tape that showed the 17-year-old girl going into the bathroom. Police say she came out and walked to her car in the parking lot after being inside for about 40 minutes. The workers looked for the baby for about 30 minutes before they found it.
Around 11 p.m., police saw the teen’s car and pulled her and Martinez over. A press statement says that paramedics rushed the girl to the hospital while police arrested her father.
The news story didn’t say if the baby was living when it was born or how it died.
“We extend our deepest condolences to all affected by this tragic event,” police said.
About 45 miles southwest of Corpus Christi is the city of Kingsville.
Texas has a law called the Baby Moses Law, which is also called the Safe Haven Law. It lets parents leave babies younger than 60 days old at a certain emergency child care provider.