(Suffolk County Police)
A lawyer for the Long Island live-in housekeeper accused of killing her newborn baby and throwing the body in the trash says the infant was the result of a rape, and had been born stillborn and premature.
Santos Elena Ruiz Solano, the 26-year-old housekeeper who lived in her employer’s West Islip home, was arraigned on second degree murder charges yesterday after prosecutors accused her of fatally fracturing the infant’s skull, putting the body in a plastic bag and throwing it in a garbage can. Ruiz Solano, a native of Honduras, plead not guilty, andaccording to attorney Michael Brown, she was raped en route to the United States seven months ago. “She is a mother who gave birth to a stillborn baby. She’s traumatized,” he said. “But now she is facing the hammer of the criminal justice system. “
Medica examiners say the infant was born alive, and the bodily trauma it suffered indicated a significant force. “The baby had three skull fractures that would have been caused by at least one impact,” prosecutor Glenn Kurtzrock said yesterday. “It would not have been caused by the baby simply falling or being dropped out of someone’s arms.”
According to prosecutors, Ruiz Solano gave birth on Sunday in the bathroom of her employer’s home; she allegedly called her husband to take her to the hospital soon after, and gave him a plastic bag with the infant’s body, which he then threw out unknowingly. He reportedly told officials he did not know his wife was pregnant; she has two children at home in Honduras.
Ruiz Solano is being held without bail.
