Category: KENS 5 Eyewitness News
Mother wants signed confession thrown out
By Amanda Taylor
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
Web Posted : 02/10/2004 6:18 PM
A woman accused of abusing her son wants the trial judge to throw out her signed confession because she said police coerced her. This isn't the first time this mother's been in court. She was convicted of a separate case involving child abuse.
But she says this time she's innocent.
"He (the policeman) was screaming at me saying, 'You know you hurt him (the child).' And I said, 'No, I didn't hurt him," Yvonne Espinoza said.
Espinoza is accused of burning her 5-year-old son so badly he had to be hospitalized at Santa Rosa with second- and third-degree burns that covered more than half of his back.
"All you had to do is hear him cry from outside. That's how painful the burns were," said San Antonio police officer Mark Walaski.
When officers entered the child's hospital room, they learned the boy had more than just burns.
"I asked the female over there, 'How did the baby get injuries in the anal area?' And she looked at me straight in the face and said, 'A razor,' " Walaski said. Police said Espinoza gave them a signed statement acknowledging the alleged abuse. They say she acknowledged leaving her son in a tub with scalding water and later cutting him with a razor to stop him from crying. "I told them (police) I hurt him. I told (police) I held him underwater for 15 to 20 minutes, but i didn’t know what I was saying," Espinoza said.
Now Espinoza and her attorneys want that statement thrown out. They say she should have been read her Miranda rights before officers started questioning her. And she says officers coerced her to give an inaccurate statement.
"I said, 'What do you want me to say?' And he said, 'Just say it.' And I broke out and said it," Espinoza said.
The judge will decide at 9 a.m. Wednesday whether to allow that statement in the trial. That’s also when a jury will be picked for the case.
The child is now in the care of his father.
ataylor@kens5.com
02/10/2004
they should lock this woman up and throw away the key!!!!!!!
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