Posted on 05/07/2004 10:27:25 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
LUFKIN, Texas (AP) - A high school student has been charged with first-degree murder after police say he killed his unborn twin sons by beating his pregnant girlfriend. Gerardo Flores, 18, was arrested Friday by Lufkin police after his 16-year-old girlfriend delivered twin boys stillborn at home and sought medical attention at an East Texas hospital, an arrest affidavit states. The teen was five months pregnant.
According to court documents, the girl denied anyone had beaten her, but Flores admitted he "may have hit her in the face and in the stomach" during a fight in their bedroom.
After the fight she started bleeding and he allegedly ordered her to "clean herself up," the documents said. She gave birth to the boys in the bathroom before an ambulance arrived.
The girl's condition was not available Friday afternoon.
The case could among the first prosecuted under a new Texas law that changes the definition of human life for a murder charge, The Lufkin Daily News reported in its Saturday editions. Texas law now defines an embryo or fetus as an "individual" and allows for criminal prosecution or civil court action to be carried out for injury or death to the fetus, unless it results from a medical procedure.
Flores was being held on a $250,000 bond. If convicted, he faces from five years to life in prison.
Angelina County District Attorney Clyde Herrington said changes in the law also allow for the death penalty to be sought for a person convicted in the death of an unborn child. Herrington told the Daily News it was too early to comment on whether he would seek the death penalty.
To wit, "Alfredo Cortes-Villa, 20, of Salem was not charged with the death of the fetus because Oregon law defines a homicide victim as someone who has been born."
Yes... A true testament to the enlightened, far-thinking legacy of feminism...
Low self-esteem, pressure from their peers, lack of parental involvment.
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