Attorney: Baby in newborn death case was stillborn, accused mother Santos Elena Ruiz Solano was raped
The attorney for a West Islip housekeeper charged with killing her newborn claims that she is a victim of rape and the baby was stillborn. Santos Elena Ruiz Solano, 26, was arraigned on second-degree
News 12 Staff
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Feb 22, 2014, 2:59 AM
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Updated 3,715 days ago
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The attorney for a West Islip housekeeper charged with killing her newborn claims that she is a victim of rape and the baby was stillborn.
Santos Elena Ruiz Solano, 26, was arraigned on second-degree murder charges today. News 12 Long Island is told the medical examiner's office determined that the baby had suffered "significant damage" to its skull.
"The baby had three skull fractures that would have been caused by at least one impact," says Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock.
According to prosecutors, Solano gave birth Sunday in the West Islip home where she works. Prosecutors say she called her husband, Selvin Hernandez, of Central Islip, to take her to the hospital and handed him a bag when he arrived. Solano allegedly instructed her husband to throw out the bag, but prosecutors say he became suspicious and opened it. He called police when he found the baby.
"She told her husband it was garbage," says Kurtzrock.
Defense attorney Michael Brown says Ruiz Solano is devastated by all that happened. According to Brown, the stillborn baby was born in the bathroom.
Prosecutors say Ruiz Solano came to the U.S. illegally from Honduras seven months ago. Brown claims she was raped on her way to states.
Ruiz Solano's family says she is the mother of two small children living in Honduras. Hernandez says no one had any idea she was pregnant for seven months.
Ruiz Solano is being held without bail.
