It was a cold January night in Artesia, New Mexico. A 19-year-old cheerleader named Alexee Trevizo walked into the Artesia General Hospital emergency room complaining of severe back pain. Hours later, she would be a mother. And moments after that, she would be accused of murder.
What happened inside that hospital has ignited a firestorm of debate, pitting a grieving family and determined prosecutors against a defense team leveling explosive allegations of medical malpractice. The case of Alexee Trevizo isn’t just a story of a secret birth and a tragic death; it’s a tangled web of disputed evidence, medical ethics, and the bewildering phenomenon of pregnancy denial. Is this the story of a cold, calculated killer who disposed of her newborn in a trash can, or is it the story of a terrified young woman failed by the very people she turned to for help?
A Night of Pain and Panic
The timeline of events on January 27, 2023, is the undisputed foundation of the case. Trevizo arrived at the hospital and, after a series of tests, was given ketorolac and cyclobenzaprine for her pain. As the pain persisted, she was given a dose of morphine. It was only after these medications were administered that a blood and urine test confirmed what Trevizo had allegedly denied: she was pregnant.
Soon after, Trevizo locked herself in a hospital bathroom for an extended period. Staff grew concerned. When they finally gained entry, they were met with a scene that would form the basis of a murder charge. The bathroom was, according to the criminal complaint, a bloody mess. In the trash can, beneath other refuse, a cleaning lady and a nurse made a horrific discovery: a newborn baby boy, cold and not breathing. Despite efforts to resuscitate him, the infant was pronounced dead.
The official cause of death, according to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, was “entrapment,” meaning he was trapped in the plastic bag-lined trash can. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.
Two Explosive Narratives Collide
This is where the story splits into two vastly different realities.
The Prosecution’s Case: A Secret Murder
For the prosecution, the facts are simple and chilling. They argue that Alexee Trevizo knew she was pregnant, lied about it, and went to the bathroom with the specific intent to secretly give birth and dispose of her child. They point to the fact that she tied the trash bag shut. They argue the baby was born alive and healthy and only died because of his mother’s malicious actions. The charge reflects this belief: first-degree murder, the most serious charge possible, along with a charge for tampering with evidence.
The most damning evidence for the prosecution is the police bodycam footage from inside the hospital room. In the video, a doctor and investigators confront a distraught Trevizo and her mother. “We found the baby in the trash can,” an officer says. Trevizo’s response, through tears, is, “It came out of me and I didn’t know what to do… I was just scared.” The prosecution sees this as a confession, an admission of a conscious, albeit panicked, act.
The Defense’s Case: Malpractice and a Terrified Teen
Trevizo’s defense attorney, Gary Mitchell, has come out swinging with a completely different story. He argues that the hospital, not Trevizo, is to blame for the baby’s death. The defense claims the hospital was negligent by administering morphine and other drugs that could be harmful to a fetus before confirming she was pregnant. They contend these drugs could have played a role in the infant’s death.
“This is a story about a hospital that kills a baby and then tries to blame it on the mother,” Mitchell has stated publicly.
Central to their argument is the phenomenon of cryptic pregnancy, or pregnancy denial. Trevizo insists she did not know she was pregnant. While it may sound unbelievable, cryptic pregnancy is a recognized medical condition where a woman is psychologically and sometimes physically unaware she is carrying a child. They often have no bump, no morning sickness, and may continue to have what they believe are irregular periods. The defense argues Trevizo was a scared teen who genuinely believed her back pain was just back pain, and that the birth on the toilet was a sudden, traumatic, and shocking event.
The Bigger Picture: Laws and Similar Tragedies
The case doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It touches on broader societal issues that make it so compelling and shareable.
New Mexico has a “Safe Haven Law,” which allows a parent to surrender an infant up to 90 days old at a safe location like a hospital or fire station, with no questions asked and no criminal liability. The tragedy, legal experts note, is that while this law provides a safe alternative, it offers no legal protection once a crime has been committed. The prosecution’s case rests on the argument that Trevizo did not use this safe option.
The Alexee Trevizo case also brings to mind the highly publicized trial of Brooke Skylar Richardson in Ohio. Richardson was a high school cheerleader who, in 2017, secretly gave birth and buried the infant in her backyard. Like Trevizo, she claimed she didn’t know she was pregnant until the very end. The prosecution charged her with aggravated murder, claiming she had killed the baby. However, a jury acquitted her of the most serious charges, finding her guilty only of abusing a corpse. The Richardson case proved that in the face of intense public scrutiny, proving a mother’s intent to kill in a secret birth can be incredibly difficult for prosecutors.
An Unanswered Question
As the legal battle rages on, with disputes over the admissibility of the bodycam footage and the hospital’s potential liability, a community and a nation are left to wonder. What really happened in that hospital bathroom?
Was Alexee Trevizo a manipulative killer who silenced the cry of her newborn son? Or was she a clueless, terrified teenager, thrown into a medical and psychological crisis, who was failed by a system that medicated her before diagnosing her, leading to a tragic outcome for which she is now being solely blamed?
The answer will ultimately be decided in a courtroom, but the questions raised by her case—about medical responsibility, the mysteries of the human mind, and the desperate choices made in moments of pure panic—will continue to haunt us all.
