LOS ANGELES – The Mexican Rosa Jiménez, sentenced in Texas to spend 99 years in prison for the death of a baby who was under his care, was exonerated this Monday after what The Travis County District Attorney’s Office will dismiss the charges.their lawyers reported on Monday.
Jiménez was sentenced for the death of 21-month-old Bryan Gutiérrezwho was in his care in Austin, Texas, in 2003.
The boy choked on paper towels, suffered a severe brain injury due to lack of oxygen and passed away three months later.
Jiménez, then 20 years old and who was pregnant and caring for her one-year-old daughter, told authorities that he tried to get the boy to expel the paper, but the police did not believe him.
At trial in 2005, the prosecution said there was no way the baby could have choked on the towels alone instead, the Mexican woman inserted the paper towels into her mouth.
The Innocence Project, which represents Jiménez, managed to reopen the case after years of requests for the Travis District Attorney’s Office to review the case.
At a hearing in 2021, several pediatric respiratory experts concluded that the baby’s death was an accident and that witnesses in the 2005 trial reached an “incorrect” conclusion.
The woman was released that year after a judge determined that he was innocent.
Last May, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the 2005 conviction and ruled that the prosecution had used false and misleading testimony to obtain his conviction.
This Monday the Travis Prosecutor’s Office has definitively closed the case by filing a motion to dismiss the charges against Jiménez.
