MILWAUKEE — A woman who faked a pregnancy and panicked as her supposed due date grew near attacked a pregnant mother with a baseball bat and cut her full-term fetus from her womb with an X-Acto knife, killing the mother and baby, according to court documents filed Monday.
Annette Morales-Rodriguez, 33, faces one count each of first-degree intentional homicide while armed and first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed in the death of Maritza Ramirez- Cruz and the boy she was set to deliver next week. Morales-Rodriguez faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.
Morales-Rodriguez made a court appearance Monday. Her bail was set at $1 million.
According to the criminal complaint, Morales-Rodriguez told detectives that her boyfriend wanted a son but that she couldn’t get pregnant. She told him she was pregnant anyway, but started to grow desperate as her “due date” approached.
She told investigators she found Ramirez-Cruz outside a health clinic. The 23-year-old had moved from Puerto Rico to join her childhood sweetheart, Christian Mercado, said Mercado’s father, Carlos Mercado. Ramirez-Cruz was carrying their fourth child.
Morales-Rodriguez told detectives she offered Ramirez- Cruz a ride and drove them to her house, and Ramirez-Cruz went inside to use the bathroom. When she emerged, Morales-Rodriguez was waiting for her with a baseball bat.
The complaint said Morales- Rodriguez bludgeoned her, then choked her until she passed out. Morales-Rodriguez then duct-taped Ramirez- Cruz’s feet and hands, and taped over her mouth and nose. She cut her open with the knife, the complaint said, telling detectives she was trying to imitate a procedure she had seen on the Discovery Channel.
When she pulled the fetus out, the baby wasn’t breathing, Morales-Rodriguez said.
She called 911 and pretended she had given birth to a stillborn baby, the complaint said. But doctors soon determined she was lying and she was arrested.
