Woman sentenced to 16 years for throwing newborn in dumpster.
Alexis Avila, a New Mexico woman, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for attempting to commit first-degree murder and abusing her newborn baby by leaving it in a dumpster. The infant was found by Good Samaritans in Hobbs, New Mexico, after five hours in the dumpster during cold temperatures. Avila, who was 18 at the time, claimed that she did not know she was pregnant until a day before she gave birth. New Mexico law allows people to take babies up to 90 days old to "safe haven sites" without being charged with child abandonment.