User:Kayzoe12/sandbox

= The Murder of Baby Lollipops, Lazaro Figueroa =

The Investigation - The Cause of Death and events leading up to :
Lazaro's father, Fidel Figueroa and Cardona’s partner was a drug dealer named, along with Cardona's 2 other children, the family lived very well off, with numerous indulgence. Just on month before Cardona gave birth to Lazaro, Fidel died - leaving Cardona with very little. Supposedly when Lazaro was eleven months of age, he was normally healthy, weighing around 9 kilograms, during this time however he and his sister had been living in foster care, following being taken in by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. In November 1988, Lazaro and his sister were placed back into the custody with Cardona.

Cardona soon became sexually involved with Olivia Gonzalez-Mendoza, who moved in with Cardona and the three children, with very minimal income - stealing being a predominant source of resources. Throughout the period in which the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services placed the children in Cardona's care, Lazaro endured beatings, confinement and starvation. Cardona and Gonzalez-Mendoza would often tie the children to the bedposts and leave them there for hours at a time or enclosed in wardrobes. Neglect was extremely evident in that the women would place tape around the nappy of Lazaro to ensure excrement would not escape - as it would rarely be changed. In the eyes of Cardona, Lazaro was the reason behind her sudden loss of fortune and poverty. Gonzalez-Mendoza was encouraged to also join Cardona in abusing the children, particularly Lazaro.

Gonzalez-Mendoza revealed the events which ultimately lead to Lazaros death, including Cardona brutally beating the child with  a baseball bat and then enclosing him in a closet. Upon returning to the closet, Gonzalez-Mendoza found Cardona once again holding the bat with the belief they boy had died. Lazaro was dressed by the women and taken to Miami Beach and left in shrubbery. The women the travelled the state, taking a “spontaneous family trip” to Disneyland. Cardona concocted a story that Lazaro had accidentally fell and knocked his head and that she throw guilty attempted to save him, claiming that when she couldn't  she left him in Miami so someone else could.

The medical examiner found that Lazaro died as a result from ongoing torture and neglect. According to the medical examiner, Lazaro did not die from one particular injury; rather, he died from months of child abuse and neglect.

The left arm of Lazaro was found to be completely immobile due to the muscle calcifying into bone. Also on the left arm, was multiple bruises and lacerations. The right arm was fractured and toenails were completely crushed. There were multiple cigarette burns found on his skin and pressure sores which would of been a result from being stuck in one place, unable to move (ie. tied to the bed). Lazaros front teeth had been knocked out and bacteria had began to form in the brain due to a deep skull fracture.The nerves connecting the spinal cord to the rear of the child's brain were drastically damaged and this injury is seen to have been ultimately fatal.

Discovery (finding the body)
On the 2nd of November 1990, some employees from Florida Power and Light Company found the body fo Lazaro, nestled in bushes out the front of a Miami beach property. The body of the then unknown child was emaciated and extremely bruised - abuse was very evident. Some of the injuries prevalent were seen as recent and others as more than a year old. The boy was found to be in a diaper that had obviously not been changed for weeks, along with a lollipop designed t shirt (hence becoming known as ‘Baby Lollipops’). The identity of the child went unknown for multiple weeks, after neighbours of Cardona's had recognised Lazaro in news reports and made a claim to the police department.

Trial and Conviction
Following the body of Lazaro being found in November 1990 and months of searching, Cardona was arrested on the 6th of December 1990, with two total charges;  First-Degree Murder and Aggravated Child Abuse. She testified to both of these, claiming Gonzalez-Mendoza was actually accountable and that she never acted against Gonzalez-Mendoza, for fear of her own life and that of her other children. By March 1992, Cardona was found guilty with both counts by the jury with an 8 to 4 majority electing for the death penalty to be inflicted. In April, Cardona was sentenced capital punishment for the crime of first degree murder and 15 years in prison for aggravated child abuse. Upon retrial in 2010, Cardona was once again found guilty of both original charged and  convicted and sent to Death Row - this time by a 7 to 5 majority. Once again, on December 13th 2017, Cardona was convicted for a third time of brutally abusing her son and sentenced to life in prison as she was found guilty on counts of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

Aftermath
When Cardona was charged and found guilty with the crime of First Degree Murder in 1992, she was sentenced the death penalty as punishment which was ultimately groundbreaking as it would mean she would be the first woman in history to be sentenced to death for the murder her own child. However, despite this historical court decision, this sentence has since been overturned twice, until her most recent conviction in 2017 leading to a final sentence of life imprisonment. The recognition that Cardona murdered and tortured her own child has lead to numerous case studies and investigations, attempting to better understand relationships between mothers and children's, with a focus on postnatal depression and the most extreme scenarios. It has been identified that Cardona had a serious deficit relationship and nurturing nature when it came to raising Lazaro and her mental illness transpired into a cycle of torture towards her baby. The case has raised significant awareness surrounding parental abuse towards children and post natal depression, both of which are evident in the case.

References:
Arlene M. Huysman, Postpartum Effect (Seven Stories Press, 2003)

Case Law, Florida, Supreme Court No. SC11-1446

Court Listener, Supreme Court of Florida, Cardona V State 641

John E.B. Myers, Evidence in Child, Domestic and Elder Abuse Cases (Aspen Publishers, 2005)e

John West, Wests Souther Report, (West Publishing Company, 1994)

Louis J. Palmer, Encyclopedia of Capital Punishment in the United States, (McFarland, 2001)

Miami Files, ''Sentencing Order. Case no. 90-48092B''

Michelle S. Jacobs, ''The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology  Vol. 88, No. 2, Requiring Battered Women Die: Murder Liability for Mothers under Failure to Protect Statutes'' (Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law 1973)