Mom admits killing son in toss off footbridge

[Coleus]

Mom admits killing son in toss off footbridge

She agrees to a term of 18 years in prison

Friday, January 24, 2003

BY RUDY LARINI
Star-Ledger Staff

Her family had told her that if she ever needed them to care for her son, they would be there for her.

But she didn't turn to them late that Saturday night in June 2000 when she wanted to go out and couldn't find anyone to watch the toddler.

So she took him to a footbridge over the Passaic River in Paterson and  tossed him into the water just above the Great Falls.

Yesterday, in a courtroom in Paterson, Martita Gonzalez admitted her crime and agreed she should spend at least the next 15 years of her life behind bars.

Charged with murdering 15-month-old Anthony Valentin, the 20-year-old Paterson woman pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, accepting an offer by the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office for a maximum sentence of 18 years in prison.

If Superior Court Judge Donald R. Reenstra accepts the plea agreement and imposes the 18-year sentence, Gonzalez would have to spend 85 percent of the term -- or 15 years, three months and 19 days -- in prison before becoming eligible for parole. Reenstra set sentencing for Feb. 25.

Outside the courtroom after the plea, Gonzalez's aunt, Milagros Santana, said the young mother was a troubled woman suffering from schizophrenia.

"She is sick, mentally ill," Santana said. "A mother who is sick would not know what she is doing."

She said the baby's father, Anthony Valentin, had asked Gonzalez if she wanted to have an abortion when she became pregnant, but she said "no."

Santana said her family offered to help Gonzalez with the boy if she ever needed it.

"If you ever feel you can't take care of your son, we'll take over," the aunt said she told Gonzalez. "If you ever feel trapped, that you can't handle the baby, remember I'm here.

"But she said, 'No, Milagros, I will never give up my baby. I love my baby,'" Santana said. "She's hurt. She's hurt inside. Imagine such a pain that she is going through."

Gonzalez, with her dark hair flowing down the back of her blue prison jumpsuit, showed no emotion yesterday as she calmly answered questions about the crime from her lawyer, Anthony Fusco, Passaic County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Walter Dewey and the judge.

She answered "yes" when Reenstra asked her, "When you threw the baby off the bridge, you knew the baby was going to drown or die?"

Fusco, noting that Gonzalez has an IQ of only 77, said he could have pursued an insanity defense in taking the case to trial. But it would have been "rolling the dice," he said, with Gonzalez facing at least 30 years in prison if convicted of murder. She earlier had rejected a plea offer calling for a 25-year sentence.

"The philosophy of juries today and their approach to these cases may not be as sympathetic as we'd like them to be," Fusco said.

He said he could offer no motive for Gonzalez's crime.

"We will not know the complete answer to, 'Why did she do it,'" he said. "I don't think any doctor will be able to get into her mind completely."

Dewey said the prosecution would have offered evidence at trial that Gonzalez wanted to see her boyfriend and go dancing the night she killed her son, but could not find anyone to watch him.

"When she left the house, she was unhappy that no one would take care of the baby," he said, adding the prosecution was prepared to prove "the fact that she didn't want to be burdened by this child anymore."

But he said the prosecution would have faced its own risk in taking the case to trial and trying to prove Gonzalez was not legally insane.

"One of the arguments is that someone who would do something so terrible to her child must be crazy," the assistant prosecutor said.

Dewey said he had not been in recent contact with the baby's father and did not seek his approval of the plea offer.

"He was more interested in supporting the defendant than in getting justice for the child," Dewey said.

A month after Gonzalez killed her son, New Jersey became the eighth state to enact a law -- the Safe Haven Infant Protection Act -- that allows a person to leave an infant less than 30 days old who has not been abused or neglected at a police station or hospital with no questions asked and no threat of prosecution.

The law, passed after a spate of widely publicized cases in which mothers killed their newborns, would not have applied to Gonzalez's 15-month-old son.

[Toirdhealbheach Beucail]

"The philosophy of juries today and their approach to these cases may not be as sympathetic as we'd like them to be," Fusco said.

One is reasonably sure that he is glad his mother didn't throw him off the bridge....

That funny philosophy that killing children is wrong...yes, I can see where the jury might not be as sympathetic.

[Coleus]

This is what happens when a country and society accepts the culture of death.

This Waterfalls is the second-highest falls on the east coast--second only to Niagara Falls. What a way to kill your baby. Sad thing is, is that if she would have had a partial-birth abortion, everything would have been OK. You can drown a baby with saline in utero and that's OK, nice world in which we live. We must outlaw abortion so people could start respecting life, all life.

It was a long way to the bottom, I can't see how she could have done this.

http://www.tablecloth.com/great_falls_of_paterson.htm

http://www.wildnj.com/njm5-2.htm

http://www.rt23.com/history/Paterson_NJ-silk_city.shtml

[Coleus]

[annyokie]

This is horrible. A fifteen-month old would be well aware that his MOTHER is THOWING HIM OFF A BRIDGE!!

I hope she gets the death penalty, the evil b*tch that she is.

May God rest that poor baby's soul.

[Coleus]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzQ2NzYw

Gonzalez's lawyer, Anthony Fusco>>>

Side Note: Fusco is a Former Republican Candidate for Congress in his district who held a "meet and greet" at his law office for Democrat James McGreevey for NJ Governor and dumped Bret Schundler. He is presently a REPUBLICAN Passaic County Freeholder candidate, go figure. Nice Republican party we have in NJ.

[Dave in Eugene of all places]

Well the kid was only 15 months old. Not much different, really, than a late term abortion. I thought we didn't put people in prison for that sort of thing anymore.

Dave in Eugene

[freedumb2003]

I have waited all my life to see a case where a lawyer would not take it. For a defendant so henious and inhuman that only Satan himself would associate with the accused.

Manson? Lawyers lining up. His disciples? Same deal
Kazinski? It's not like he BOMBED anybody -- he's just misunerstood.
Bundy? Yeah, he killed but it isn't like he MEANT to.
Johnny bin-Walker? Traitors need love too.

I would bet $100 at 1 to 2000 that if bin Laden was alive that some WASP lawyer would defend him.

There is no end of the gene pool too shallow to produce a lawyer to defend the indefensible.

[Toirdhealbheach Beucail]

Just prior to reading this article, I put my 15 month daughter to bed. My three year old is perched on my lap as I write this. The idea that anyone could do this to their own child is more repugnant than I can possibly imagine.

And now, my daughter wants to type...


vgffgffggfmmmmmmmmmmmmmmfmmcxxhnnnndxxxttxeyeexyxentxxxxeeeeee

[annyokie]

I just went upstairs and kissed my boys (six and thirteen).

After what she did to that poor child, I can only hope that they put her in the general population and publicize her crime.

Kiss your babies for me, please.

[StarFan]

I have a knot in my stomach after reading this and upset I didn't trust my instincts and simply ignore as the title said it all.

"The philosophy of juries today and their approach to these cases may not be as sympathetic as we'd like them to be," Fusco said.

He's as SICK as he claims his client is. For an 'insane' woman, she was certainly in touch with reality not accepting a plea bargain calling for 25 years. Why she is calling the shots is beyond me.

[SamAdams76]

Eighteen years is an extremely lenient sentence for premeditated, cold-blooded murder. Having a low IQ is not an extenuating circumstance in my opinion. Even a mentally-retarded person knows that murder is wrong. How could they even consider such a plea-bargain?

[RGVTx]

And now, my daughter wants to type... vgffgffggfmmmmmmmmmmmmmmfmmcxxhnnnndxxxttxeyeexyxentxxxxeeeeee Leave it to a child to bring a ray of sunshine at the darkest moments. Thanks for the smile, little one.

[webber]

When America accepted the "Abortion Rights" Law (The Right To Kill Your Baby before it can take it's firt breath law) It welcomed the "Angel Of Death" in. This is just the tip of the iceberg because as America becomes more and more immoral, things like this will become common place, and people will eventually just shrug it off and say, "This is news? C'mon it's happening all the time. It's time to move on."
WARNNG: If you are handicapped in any way, or over 60, or maybe the wrong minority (Jews, Christians) you may be the next target, not by unloving mothers, but by your beloved liberals who are already foaming at the mouth at the thought of being able to do the same thing to you LEGALLY!

[cpforlife.org]

" One dark day in January of 1973, SATAN donned judicial robes! Robes flowing, gavel in hand, he swept onto the floor of the United States Supreme Court. He presided over the most atrocious travesty of justice that ever took place, and he declared - we now have the 'right' to murder the most innocent, in what should be the safest place in the universe for them! And since then, tens of millions of babes have been assassinated in their own mothers' wombs! The darkness indeed grows deeper."

Fr. John Corapi S.O.L.T.

When SCOTUS gave licence to murder babies before birth, from that moment on anything would eventually become possible. More proof.

God Save The Republic

[firewalk]

....shaking my head & bump

[agrace]

I agree. Right now I'm listening to my son - who is 2 tomorrow - play with his almost 6 year old sister in the next room. I can't even imagine what would have gone through a 15-month-old's head as his own mother did this. And his father was more interested in supporting her than seeking justice for his son. Disgusting.

[Coleus]

It's too bad that most people do not see the trend.

[Coleus]

The way things are going, it will be legal to do something like that in the future. Why should you child become in between you and your date? What an inconvenience!

[FourtySeven]

vgffgffggfmmmmmmmmmmmmmmfmmcxxhnnnndxxxttxeyeexyxentxxxxeeeeee

You should tell your daughter that her post is more articulate than some I've seen around here. hehe

[Coleus]

And this lawyer is now running for county office..

[Coleus]

They are doing it now with the blacks and the eugenics movement; it's just too bad that they do not realize what has been going on for the last 80 years.


http://www.bondinfo.org/
http://www.blackgenocide.org/negro.html
http://blackgenocide.org/planned.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/612636/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a1204015ab1.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/808590/posts
http://www.cwfa.org/library/life/2001-05_pp_n-project.shtml

Eugenics
http://www.pop.org/reports/pathfind.txt
http://www.trunkerton.fsnet.co.uk/Eugenics.htm
http://www.learninc.org/articles/eugenics.html
http://www.eugenics-watch.com/roots/chap12.html
http://www.africa2000.com/ENDX/aenames.htm
http://www.africa2000.com/endx/aememd.htm
http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/~rauch/no-violence/consistent/star-tribune_eugenics.html
http://www.pregnancycenters.org/batonrouge/abortionafican.html
http://www.abortionfacts.com/learn/history_of_blacks_and_abortion.asp

http://www.dailycatholic.org/hhsengov.htm

[victim soul]

God help us -- if we don't save and protect our children.

[cgk]

"The philosophy of juries today and their approach to these cases may not be as sympathetic as we'd like them to be," Fusco said

Beg pardon? How can you expect a jury to be sympathetic when your client, the murderer, in her own words coldly flings her toddler into a river because she'd RATHER GO DANCING???????????????

Cripes.

The story doesn't mention if she made it out on the town, unless I missed it. How long before the child was found?

[cgk]

That looks like the Sopranos bridge.

[Coleus]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzMyNjM0

From the start, she did not deny dropping the boy from the bridge. She told police she had been looking for a baby sitter that night, but could not find someone to watch her son so she could go dancing or visit a boyfriend. After the crime, Gonzalez went to the boyfriend's house, where prosecutors noted she "engaged in a sex act."

About 24 hours later, Gonzalez drove herself to a hospital, where she told a counselor she was suicidal, confessed, and said she did it because she "felt like she had no life," according to Gonzalez's statements to police.

[Elsie]

She said the baby's father, Anthony Valentin, had asked Gonzalez if she wanted to have an abortion when she became pregnant, but she said "no."

Kill 'im now or kill 'im later........

---

What's the big deal????

You people sound as if this child life had some kind of value!

(after he was born)

[Coleus]

that is why we need to inculcate a culture of life in our churches and schools (starting in kindergarten) and society in general. People tend to think of children as disposable items.

It's a shame that animals and turtle eggs are afforded more protections and rights than a human fetus and baby created in God's Image with a soul.

Genesis 9:3
Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.

Man:
Kill the humans (abortion) and save the Bears, the spotted owls, the Canadian Geese and the whales and don't crack that turtle egg!!

You can get fined up to $10,000 for messing with those eggs and baby-killing physicians get paid government and private money $$$ to kill humans! Go figure.

http://endangered.fws.gov/esa.html#Lnk11 http://endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html#Species
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/785378/posts
http://endangered.fws.gov/

The Endangered Species Act of 1973
http://endangered.fws.gov/esaall.pdf

Page 4 Sec 3 (c)(8) don't crack those eggs, one might end the "life" of a bird, fish or turtle. I guess certain "mammals" (humans) do not apply.

http://profs.lp.findlaw.com/endanger/endanger_6.html

The Govt. recognizes that a fertilized egg from an animal is "alive" and protected by LAW (The Endangered Species Act of 1973) and when in a human, in God's image, it's just a blob of "unlive" protoplasm which can be aspirated if it's the mother's "choice" to do so with no protections under the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.

County to round up and gas Canada geese(No not really)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/942621/posts

Man who shot bear near house charged by DEP
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/928120/posts
A hungry black bear barges in to kitchen
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/928135/posts?page=1
Plan to Attend the May 22 Fish & Wildlife Hearing on Black Bear Hunting
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/909379/posts
Bear Hunting In New Jersey
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/915469/posts
Bear swats Sparta, NJ toddler
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/915249/posts
Jersey Could End Bear Market (NJ lawmakers to give animal rights group $95,000 to end hunting)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/907309/posts
Bear Kills Infant In Upstate N.Y.
Bear Dragged 5-Month-Old Away From Summer Bungalow Colony
http://cbsnewyork.com/siteSearch/news_story_1364547158_html
One trapped in West Milford; another killed at Vernon home
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/928120/posts?page=27#27

[Elsie]

It's a shame grievious sin that animals and turtle eggs are afforded more protections and rights than a human fetus and baby created in God's Image with a soul.

[Coleus]

Passaic River put Paterson on the map

Monday, July 14, 2003, By WHITNEY KVASAGER,HERALD NEWS

The five rivers of Passaic County shaped the area's history and decided its fate as an industrial region.

As historians J. Palmer and Margaret Murphy put it, the Passaic, Pompton, Pequannock, Wanaque and Ramapo were highways for explorers and settlers, protection for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, generators of electricity during the industrial revolution and sources of drinking water.

The Passaic River is the main river.

In the days before Europeans settled in Paterson, the Passaic was filled with shad, bass, pickerel, perch and trout. Sturgeon, according to the Murphys, grew to 130 pounds.

As the crow flies, the Passaic is less than 25 miles from its point of origin to the Atlantic Ocean. Its meandering course, however, is 90 miles long, making it the longest river in the state. It draws water from many streams and marshes in Somerset, Morris, Essex and Bergen counties, and enters Passaic County in Wayne Township at Mountain View. There, the river joins Pompton River, which along the way has been fed by waters of the Ramapo, Wanaque and Pequannock, and becomes a calm stream until Little Falls.

After Little Falls, the river snakes to West Paterson and into Paterson, where it falls 77 feet as the Great Falls. The Falls are the second largest waterfall by volume east of the Mississippi River, surpassed only by Niagara Falls.

"One of the reasons people settled in the area was because of the abundance of clear and plentiful, pure water," said Passaic County Historian Ed Smyk. Indeed, when areas of the country were first colonized, settlers chose to build near the water.

"But when I look at the Falls," Smyk said, "I just see dollar signs."

Others had the same idea.

On July 10, 1779, Gen. George Washington and his aide-de-camp, Col. Alexander Hamilton, picnicked near the base of the falls.

According to Lawrence A. Trumbell's "History of Industrial Paterson," the two "drank Madiera wine and gamboled with the local maidens."

But despite the revelry, Hamilton was still struck by the 77-foot-high, 280-foot-wide falls.

While Washington appreciated the falls from the perspective of military power; Hamilton, his first time there, saw the falls as a source of water power.

Twelve years later, Hamilton remembered the spot when he drafted plans to create the Society for Useful Manufactures.

The Great Falls had the perfect set-up for entrepreneurs, Smyk said. There was land near the falls on which buildings could be constructed, the Falls provided the energy, and the Passaic River provided easy access to the New York port.

Multiple industrial buildings were set up, and Paterson as an industrial city was born.

"The river had all sorts of purposes," Smyk said. Because the Falls drew those interested in harnessing its power, the Passaic soon became polluted.

During the drought of 1894, fumes from the lower Passaic caused paint on nearby houses to peel.

Reach Whitney Kvasager at (973) 569-7164 or Kvasager@northjersey.com

[Calpernia]

Next time I'm at my mom's house, I'll see if there are any pictures I can borrow.

Our family settled along the Passaic. We have pictures of this river with Great Uncles, Great great Grandfathers, etc. fishing there. Newark use to be the place to go for fun and a hotdog. Now look at it.

The Passaic was beautiful. Now, the Passaic is sad. When I was in high school, I was one of the 'River Rats' (school nickname). That is what they called the Crew Team.

Our practices and regattas were held on that river. Yes, I've been in it. Yuck. You would end up with some type of slime that wouldn't wash off totally for 3 days.

We found a dead body under the floating dock while lowering a shell once. We dropped the crew shell and RAN!

[Coleus]

Mess with a turtle egg and get a yr. in jail and a $50K fine, abort a child, get paid $750.00, I think (JEB) Bush and the US congress should address these ridiculous state and Federal Laws.