Sao Paulo, Brazil – A woman accused of putting her baby in a plastic bag and setting the girl afloat in a Brazilian lake was convicted Saturday of attempted homicide and sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
Simone Cassiano da Silva, 30, maintained her innocence during the trial, claiming she gave her then 2-month-old baby to a group of homeless people because she did not have enough money to raise the child. Defense lawyers said they would appeal.
The baby’s rescue last year from a lake 300 miles northeast of Sao Paulo was filmed by an amateur cameraman and broadcast worldwide. The footage showed rescuers using a tree branch to reach a black plastic bag attached to a plank, floating in the lake.
Two men were shown untying the bag and finding the baby inside, wearing a pink dress.
Scores of Brazilians mobbed the hospital where she was taken, hoping to adopt or at least catch a glimpse of the child.
The girl, who was later adopted, had not been named at the time of her rescue. But her birth mother told the media she wanted to call the baby Iara – the deity of waters in Brazilian Indian belief.
