NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Alexis Avila is scheduled to be sentenced next week for throwing her baby into a Hobbs dumpster last year. She faces a maximum of 18 years after a jury found her guilty earlier this month. Online court documents revealed she is already going to get a break at sentencing because of state law.
Only 17 days after being found guilty of the crime, Alexis Avila faces a minimum of 12 years in prison and could get up to 18 years for child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, and attempted first-degree murder.
Avila was charged in January 2022 after putting her newborn baby in a trash bag, then throwing the bag in a dumpster. It was all caught on video, and according to prosecutors, that was the key to the conviction.
“That video said it all. It clearly caught her actions. It caught her expressions, and it’s still difficult, I think, for people to watch that video when you think about the fact that that baby was inside that bag,” said Fifth Judicial District Attorney Dianna Luce.
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The baby was found alive by three people who were digging through the dumpster. He survived his injuries and is now in the care of other relatives. At the time of sentencing, the prosecution said they would go for the maximum.
Avila has been on house arrest since January 12, 2022. Online court records show Fifth District Attorney Dianna Luce has signed off on Avila receiving 475 days confinement credit for the house arrest.
That means she will have more than a year knocked off her sentence. Luce said the law is clear: if someone is on house arrest, it is considered confinement.
This first came up in the Justin Hansen case. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2008 shovel attack on Brittany Marcell. Hansen was on an ankle monitor and was given more than a year of credit taken off his sentence despite being able to go to baseball games and dates. The state Supreme Court and Appellate Court upheld this ruling.
According to District Attorney Dianna Luce, if Avila would have been on an ankle monitor, the credit may have changed.
