Spring Valley Mom who Strangled, Threw Away Newborn Sentenced to 12 Years in State Prison

Early on, police investigating the death of a baby boy whose body was found Nov. 12, 2013 at a trash recycling center in Elmsford worried that the infant’s mother might also be a victim.

On Sept. 15, the mother of that baby, Maria Oliva Guaman-Guaman, 24, of Spring Valley, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree manslaughter. She was sentenced to 12 years in state prison with five years post release supervision.

“Today’s sentence brings to a close a disturbing case of a mother senselessly and violently killing her newborn child,” said District Attorney Thomas Zugibe. “This crime should serve as a reminder that under New York’s Safe Haven law, a parent may anonymously surrender an unwanted infant to personnel in a safe place, such as a hospital, a police station or a fire station, without repercussions.”

She had given birth Nov. 12, to the full-term baby boy at her home on North Myrtle Avenue. Zugibe said that, in pleading guilty, the defendant admitted to strangling the infant and tossing his body into a recycling container outside a convenience store in Spring Valley.

The dumpster was transported to Brookfield Recycling in Elmsford, NY, where a worker discovered the infant late that day in a plastic bag amid discarded cardboard. His umbilical cord was still attached.

A probe into the circumstances of the child’s death led detectives from the Westchester County Department of Public Safety and the Elmsford Police Department to Spring Valley.

Investigators quickly focused on the area near the Maple Avenue Convenience Store. Discarded items, including lottery tickets sold at the location, were found among the trash discarded with the infant. They released photos of items, including a flowered shirt, that were in the bag with the baby’s body.

Guaman-Guaman was identified and arrested in December. Also the mother of a then two-and-a-half-year old girl, she faced a child-neglect charge after her arrest; her daughter was put into foster care.

Jim Sexton, who was a pro-bono attorney for Guaman-Guaman on the child neglect case, said she had not been previously accused of a crime or arrested. 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 Guaman-Guaman was 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. “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.”

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