Emergency room ‘confession’ can’t be used against teenager accused of killing newborn 3%
By Edvard Pettersson12%
7/30/2026, 5:48:04 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 9 faulty reasoning types, including Self-Serving Bias, Hasty Generalization, and Quote-first Misdirection, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 9.7% saturation with 66 hits. Analysis detected 255 faulty-reasoning hits from 679 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 14.7% and a BS Rank of 3% (21,750 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 97.10% of the article peer group.
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that statements a teenager made while being treated in an emergency room can’t be used against her as evidence she murdered the child she gave birth to shortly before in the hospital bathroom.
The state’s high court unanimously affirmed the decision by a trial judge who had suppressed the “confession” Alexee Trevizo made, while she was bleeding severely and under the influence of medication, in the presence of her treating physician and two police officers.
“The facts unequivocally demonstrate that due to defendant’s medical condition, she lacked capacity to waive her physician-patient privilege,” Justice Michael Vigil wrote.
“Despite her unresolved medical crisis, Dr.
[Heather] Vaskas, without authorization, ambushed defendant, bringing with her two armed officers who stood in the doorway of her hospital room, and disclosed her personal medical information to all persons in the room without warning.”
Trevizo, who was 19-year-old high school student at the time, went to the emergency department of Artesia General Hospital with her mother around midnight on Jan. 27, 2023, because she was experiencing extreme lower back pain.
Hospital staff asked her if she was pregnant, which she denied, but she admitted to being “on her period” and having vaginal bleeding.
She also rated her pain level as “10 out of 10.”
She was given an IV with a combination of, among other medication, anti-inflammatory drugs, a muscle-relaxant and morphine to treat the pain.
Because of her age and symptoms, the treating physician, Vaskas, also ordered a serum pregnancy test, which revealed the teenager was pregnant after all.
But when hospital staff learned that she was pregnant, they didn’t discontinue the IV until another 48 minutes had passed and Trevizo needed to go to the bathroom urgently for a bowel movement.
While in the bathroom, Trevizo gave birth to a newborn she later described as not moving, crying, or breathing.
Hospital cleaning staff found the lifeless newborn in a trashcan inside the bathroom about 20 minutes later.
Autopsy lab results later showed that he had free morphine in his heart blood.
The hospital called the police, and when two officers arrived, the charge nurse told them that Trevizo “wouldn’t tell us she was pregnant” and that “she killed the kid.”
Vaskas, meanwhile, was concerned that Trevizo could die from a postpartum hemorrhage and contacted Lovelace Regional Medical Center to arrange an urgent transfer.
The physician didn’t tell Trevizo that they had found her dead baby in the bathroom trashcan.
Vaskas then brought the two police officers and the charge nurse into Trevizo’s room, where her mother was also still present, and told her that they had found a dead baby in the bathroom.
Trevizo responded in the presence of the police by saying “I’m sorry, it came out of me — I didn’t know what to do.”
She added that she held the baby and there was “‘no movement, no breathing, nothing.’”
According to the criminal complaint charging her with first degree murder, or in the alternative with intentional child abuse resulting in death, the newborn was found in a tied-up trashcan bag.
“While we are disappointed that evidence will be suppressed, we respect the court’s decision,” the New Mexico Department of Justice said in a statement.
“Regardless, we remain confident that the district attorney’s office will pursue justice in this case.”
The ruling was excellent for Trevizo and for women’s rights to privacy in general, said her lawyer, Gary Mitchell.
“She’s innocent, anyway,” Mitchell said in a telephone interview.
“Alexee went there to get help, and the hospital made some serious errors.”
It’s not that unusual for women not to know they are pregnant or even to continue having monthly periods while they are pregnant, the attorney said.
His client was a healthy young woman who assumed she was gaining weight at the time because she wasn’t eating healthy, Mitchell said.
Once the case is returned to the trial judge, it will proceed to trial, likely sometime next year, the attorney said.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.