Teen Mother Won’t Serve Prison Time for Killing Newborn

An 18-year-old woman who stabbed her newborn daughter to death with a pair of scissors will spend no time in prison for her crime, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge decided Tuesday.

Carmen Uribe, who was 16 at the time of her daughter’s death, was set to be released on probation Tuesday night from West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. She spent 14 months behind bars awaiting trial.

In his ruling, Judge James Edwards cited Uribe’s age, her demonstration of remorse, her lack of a criminal history and her depression at the time she stabbed the infant in explaining why he could not sentence her to prison.

“He had two options: probation or life [in prison],” Deputy Dist. Atty. David Hidalgo said. “He was not prepared to sentence her to life in prison.”

Her attorney, Chaim Magnum, said Uribe was relieved at Edwards’ decision.

“She’s extremely remorseful and very, very happy that the judge was so benign in his sentence,” he said, admitting the ruling surprised him. “I was very taken aback,” Magnum said. “I was expecting some kind of a jail term.”

Uribe, of San Bernardino, was convicted April 24 of killing her newborn daughter after giving birth in her bathtub in March 2000.

After she is formally sentenced to five years’ probation on June 19, Uribe will use this experience to help other teenagers who may suffer from the same ignorance and fear that he believes caused her to kill her child, Magnum said.

Magnum said his client could “tell in her own words what she went through and how she went through it and why somebody in a situation like hers should seek help.”