Mom Arrested after Baby Found Stabbed to Death

[Blue_Tires]

Source: WINS / AP

PATERSON, N.J. (AP/NorthJersey.com) -- A teenage mother charged with stabbing her 6-month-old baby to death before turning the knife on herself remained hospitalized Thursday in police custody.

Sonia Rincon reports:
Gloria Arroyo, 18, was recovering at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center from stab wounds to the abdomen and chest, said police Detective Lt. Don Giaquinto. The wounds were not considered life-threatening, he said.

According to police, Arroyo had been temporarily living with the family of the baby's father, Jose Bell Sr.

Police said they were called to the family's home around 11 p.m. Wednesday night, after Bell's relatives awoke to hear Arroyo stabbing herself.

One relative got the knife out of her hands as another forced her outside, Giaquinto said. Then, the family soon made an even more gruesome discovery on the couch: The lifeless body of little Jose Bell Jr., covered in stab wounds.


Read more: http://www.1010wins.com/PHOTO--Paterson-Mom-Charged-in-Infant-s-Death/2702404

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The truly sad part is NJ has a very discreet program where you can

surrender your baby if you can't or won't keep it. No questions asked whatsoever.

[Kali]

2. mentally ill people don't always take advantage of available options

not that I know anything about this particular case, but it seems to me if someone were that fucked up they might not be capable of comprehending other possibilities

[Warpy]

3. That would require sanity

and this doesn't sound sane, to me.

I hope the court gives her a legitimate psychiatric evaluation. Sounds like post partum psychosis could be possible.

[RC]

4. The courts will just toss her in prison so she can't do it again.

Hard time with other law breakers will teach her the error of her ways. </sarcasm>

[Lance_Boyle]

5. Thanks Dr. Frist.

Guess the DA can just drop this one now, and give her counseling for her heinous crime. :eyes:

[Warpy]

8. Thank you Judge Bean

It's so nice the taxpayers will be saved the expense of an evaluation and they can send her directly to the execution gurney without the messy business of a trial.

[LostinVA]

9. If she's mentally ill, then it's not a heinous crime

:eyes:

[Seldona]

12. Oh it is still a heinous crime.

She is just not responsible for this heinous crime if found to be legally insane. Even if she was mentally ill at the time of the murder, but understood the difference between right and wrong, she most likely will have the book thrown at her.

Assuming she has no responsibility because of her mental illness is not how it works. It is the legal status of insanity that counts, and that is based on the ability to understand right and wrong. Plenty of 'mentally ill' people know the difference between right and wrong and operate their whole lives without committing any crimes, let alone something like this.

Nevertheless what a horrible tragedy. A tragedy that was no doubt the result of a string of tragedies. How could a grandparent get over something like this?

[Ilsa]

13. IIRC, they are re-evaluating "knowing the difference between

right and wrong" when insane even here in Texas. There have been several cases where it just didn't make sense to incarcerate someone with postpartum psychosis after a horrible crime when they really needed treatment.

I don't know about NJ, but maybe they'll figure it out when all the information is revealed.

[LostinVA]

15. No, then it wouldn't be a CRIME, it would be a tragedy

:sigh:

So many people don't understand either the law or mental illness.

[marshall]

6. Another teenage mother, another dead baby

Hopefully we will put a greater emphasis on adoption in the future.

[Myrina]

7. ... or sex education and widely available contraceptives ...

:shrug:

[Kali]

10. and health care for everybody, including mental!

[marshall]

17. Contraceptives = Less unwanted babies for wacko mother to kill

As Martha Stewart says, that's a good thing.

[Ilsa]

14. Poor, uninsured young women get kicked out of hospitals so fast

and without getting all the help they desperately need.

Today I spoke with the sister of a young woman who already has another child, 13 months old. The sister is in from out of town. The girl's family locally doesn't even have transportation to get her to the WIC office so she can get additional help and equipment. The hospital hasn't given her access to a breastpump so she can pump since her breasts are messed up by the baby's poor latch (and the nurses didn't know how to fix it), nor did they offer her a $9 nipple shield to make it easier for her. They "dumped" her. The baby has an infection and is still hospitalized, and needs the breastmilk. But the hospital would rather go cheap on a few bucks of equipment and have the baby remain ill or have more infections in the future and end up spending all that money on continued hospitalizations. It's sickening. She is at risk for PPD, also.

[struggle4progress]

11. This story doesn't tell us anything useful: About 500 children under the age of five are murdered

every year in the US. About half are killed by a parent. And about half are under a year old. So this is tragic -- but it happens regularly, and there doesn't seem to be anything obvious we can do about it

http://ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/children.htm

[Mnemosyne]

16. I wonder if she had symptoms of post-partum depression/psychosis that were ignored

by those around her. I think people expect PPP to hit suddenly and that is not always the case.

My sister slipped into it over the course of about four months. It seemed 'only' PPD at first, but as she became more and more paranoid and delusional, it wasn't too hard to realize reality wasn't in her mind at all. It got bad, luckily none of her 3 children were physically hurt. We took turns 'visiting' until she finally broke completely.

It's not completely over yet, but improving.

A terrible tragedy, but not a crime, imho. Many European countries have long understood that women that suffer from PPP are not criminals, but seriously ill.

And the poor little baby, :cry: