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Thread: Ana Maria Cardona - Florida

  1. #21
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    Mother who killed baby no longer facing death penalty

    A South Florida woman twice convicted of murdering her 3-year-old son will stand trial for a third time but will no longer face the penalty of death.

    Prosecutors instead will seek a life sentence for Cardona.

    A jury twice convicted Ana Maria Cardona of the 1990 murder of “Baby Lollipops,” as her son was nicknamed. Both times she was sent to death row, but in a new trial, prosecutors are no longer seeking the death penalty.

    The state attorney’s office released a statement saying, “There have been recent developments in the law regarding the death penalty since the initial charging of Ana Cardona, some 25 years ago, which have caused us to reassess our position. What has not changed is our intention to vigorously prosecute this case to its proper conclusion.”

    The badly beaten body of the baby was found dumped in Miami Beach.

    http://wsvn.com/news/local/mother-wh...death-penalty/
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  2. #22
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    3rd Trial Begins For Mom In ‘Baby Lollipops’ Killing

    MIAMI (CBSMiami) — The mother at the center of South Florida’s infamous “Baby Lollipops” murder case is back in court as prosecutors seek a third conviction against Ana Maria Cardona.

    State prosecutors spent the morning laying out their case against 56-year-old Cardona in opening statements.

    “His left arm was so badly injured that the muscle from elbow to the shoulder had fused into his bone, making it impossible for this young child to extend his arm,” said prosecutor Christine Hernandez.

    A Florida Power & Light employee who found the body of 3-year-old Lazaro Figueroa was the first witness to take the stand.

    “I noticed it looked like a torso in the bushes,” said the worker. “Well, it was a couple days after Halloween. I kind of thought it was a Halloween prop.”

    The worker described finding the toddler’s body all those years ago.

    Cardona’s defense attorney told the jury they need to focus on her partner.

    “The person who killed that child is not Ana Cardona, she could not kill her son. It was Olivia Gonzalez killed this child,” said defense attorney Manny Alvarez.

    Gonzalez, Cardona’s partner at the time, served nearly 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and has been a free woman for the past nine years.

    Cardona’s two previous convictions and death sentences have been tossed out by the Florida Supreme Court so this time; prosecutors are seeking a life in prison sentence if she is convicted.

    She was given a death sentence in 2011 after she was found guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated abuse in the beating death of her 3-year-old son Lazaro Figueroa. During that sentencing, Cardona made a statement in which she said she wished she could change her life and the life of her son. Cardona said she wished her son “could have been blessed with a better mother, one who would have protected him and always been there for him.” She also explained how she was addicted to drugs and said she was a coward.

    The Florida Supreme Court overturned that conviction due to procedural problems, as well as her first conviction and death penalty in 1992.

    Figueroa was killed in November of 1990 when Cardoza was 29.

    His body was found dumped beneath a hedge in the yard of a Miami Beach home. The boy had been starved, beaten and burned. The boy, whose identity was not known when his body was discovered, was given the name “Baby Lollipops” because of his tiny white t-shirt with an array of lollipops on the front.

    Figueroa weighed only 18 pounds when he was murdered, half the weight of what he should have been.

    http://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/12/04...ipops-killing/

  3. #23
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    Mom of ‘Baby Lollipops,’ silent during past convictions in tot’s murder, denies role

    BY DAVID OVALLE
    The Miami Herald

    Ana Maria Cardona, accused of torturing and murdering her infant son known as “Baby Lollipops,” twice went to trial and remained silent before the Miami juries. Both times, she was sent to Death Row.

    In her third trial, Cardona decided to tell her version of events to jurors, taking the stand Monday to weep and repeatedly insist she never laid a finger on her 3-year-old son, Lazaro Figueroa, whose battered and bloodied body was discovered in the bushes of a Miami Beach home in November 1990.

    Instead, Cardona laid the blame on her former lover, Olivia Gonzalez, who she claimed whisked the boy away to stay in some unknown home with a mysterious “friend” for two months before his death — where he presumably met his demise.

    “Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza killed my son! Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza killed my son!” Cardona cried as she finished her testimony on Monday.

    Throughout her testimony in a case that has riveted South Florida for more than a quarter of a century, Cardona cast herself as the victim, broke and unable to care for her three children, including 3-year-old Lazaro. She said her only choice was to live with the jealous and possessive Gonzalez, who tormented them and forced her into a sexual relationship.

    “Anytime she would touch me, I would become nauseous,” Cardona claimed. “I had a relationship with her because of the necessity of having a roof over my head with my children.”

    Yet, Cardona could not explain why she told police detectives back in 1990 that she had given away Lazaro to a mysterious woman in a restaurant. “I don’t really even know why I said that lie,” Cardona admitted.

    And Cardona acknowledged she told police — on an audio-recorded statement — that the boy hit his head after a fall from a bed and she discarded his body in Miami Beach. But Cardona claimed she was only telling police what they wanted to hear, hoping they would not take away her remaining children.

    “Doesn’t it say on the tape that you hand-delivered and dumped the child on North Bay Road,” prosecutor Reid Rubin asked, showing jurors a transcript of her interview with police.

    “It says that on the tape — but it’s not true,” Cardona protested.

    Hours of heated cross-examination often devolved into Cardona delivering long and breathless screeds, repeatedly calling Gonzalez a “monster” and “murderer” – while loudly arguing with Rubin. Five different Spanish-language translators tried to keep up as the testimony devolved into near shouting, frequent objections and several sidebars. At one point, Cardona defiantly told jurors she had twice been sent to Death Row but was fighting to clear her name.

    Cardona took the stand one week after Miami-Dade prosecutors began presenting testimony to jurors in her third trial for murder and aggravated child abuse. The search for Lazaro’s identity and killer captivated South Florida in 1990. Detectives called him Baby Lollipops because of the design on his T-shirt.

    After her first trial in 1992, Cardona was sent to Death Row, the first woman to be sentenced to die for killing her own child. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned the conviction because prosecutors failed to turn over statements made by Gonzalez, Cardona’s lover and the star witness in the trial.

    A second conviction from 2010 — and a second death sentence — were overturned because a prosecutor made “inflammatory” statements during the trial’s closing arguments.

    In the latest trial, prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty and Gonzalez is playing a prominent role, even though neither side is calling her to testify (she did 14 years in prison for her role and has been free since 2008). Prosecutors again sought to portray Cardona as a malicious cocaine-addled mother who directed her rage at the infant Lazaro. Jurors last week heard testimony from neighbors and acquaintances who recalled Cardona’s abusive treatment of the boy in the late 1980s and 1990 — and his pitiful physical state.

    “You know very well they were lying,” Cardona testified of those witnesses.

    Jurors also heard a reading of previous testimony from former Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Dr. Bruce Hyma, who died last year but testified at both of Cardona’s earlier trials.

    Extremely malnourished, Lazaro weighed only 18 pounds, about half of what he should have weighed for his age. Repeated beatings had torn away the tissue between his lips and gums, making eating, drinking and talking painful.

    His left arm was permanently bent at a 90-degree angle. His head had been bashed repeatedly, severing his brain stem, and his diaper, soiled and held together with duct tape, had caused an infection.

    “This is child torture, in my opinion,” Hyma said in 2010.

    Cardona, however, insisted that the boy never had any injuries when he was with her.

    “During the time my son was with me, he was never abused or maltreated,” Cardona testified.

    The trial is expected to wrap up Tuesday before Circuit Judge Miguel de la O.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...189160694.html

  4. #24
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    Former inmates say defendant's lover confessed to killing 'Baby Lollipops' in 1990

    Ana Maria Cardona also claims lover was responsible for 3-year-old's death

    By Liane Morejon
    WPLG Local 10

    MIAMI - Testimony resumed Tuesday in the retrial of a mother accused of killing her young son, who was known to the world as "Baby Lollipops," in 1990.

    Ana Maria Cardona was emotional the day before as she testified for the first time, claiming that it was her former lover, Olivia Gonzalez, who killed her 3-year-old son, Lazaro Figueroa.

    During Tuesday's testimony, jurors heard from a former inmate who served time in prison with Gonzalez.

    Odalys Fernandez claimed that Gonzalez had confessed to killing the young boy.

    "Maritza called her a baby killer, and Olivia said, 'Yes, if I hit the baby with the bat and that was the killer, then I killed the baby and I'll kill yours,'" Fernandez said.

    Fernandez said this was not the first time she heard Olivia confess to killing Lazaro.

    A second former inmate also took the stand Tuesday with a similar story.

    "We were talking about the Lollipops case and Olivia went off. She said, 'I hit him with a bat. So what? So what?'" the woman said.

    Lazaro's body was discovered in the bushes of a Miami Beach home in November 1990. He had been badly beaten and weighed just 18 pounds.

    Police initially couldn't identify the boy, calling him "Baby Lollipops" because of a design on his T-shirt.

    "I never thought that Olivia would end up killing my son," Cardona said on Monday. "I trusted her and never suspected that she would try to betray me."

    Prosecutors countered Cardona's testimony that she wasn't involved in her son's death by showing photos of Cardona with Gonzalez on vacation after the boy was killed.

    On Tuesday, Cardona again insisted that Gonzalez was abusive to her and her son.

    "She abused all of us," she said.

    Two previous convictions and death sentences were tossed out by the Florida Supreme Court. The most recent decision in February 2016 came after the justices deemed a new trial was necessary because of the prosecutor's "numerous improper closing arguments" that "repeatedly crossed the line."

    Cardona was initially convicted and sentenced to death in 1992, but the Supreme Court overturned the conviction because prosecutors failed to disclose key evidence to the defense.

    Prosecutors have decided against seeking the death penalty this time.

    https://www.local10.com/news/crime/f...lipops-in-1990

  5. #25
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    Closing Arguments Wednesday In Third ‘Baby Lollipops’ Murder Trial

    MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Closing arguments are expected to begin Wednesday in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her 3-year-old son decades ago.

    Ana Maria Cardona was convicted and sentenced to death twice before in the 1990 killing of 3-year-old Lazaro Figueroa, whom police could not initially identify and gave the name “Baby Lollipops” because of a T-shirt he was wearing.

    Testifying in her own defense earlier this week, Cardona claimed her former female lover, Olivia Gonzalez, killed the boy.

    She recanted her 1990 statement to police that her son had fallen off a bed and hit his head and that she dumped him in some bushes on Miami Beach. Cardona now claims a detective psychologically wore her down.

    “I answered what he was saying. I repeated what he told me. That’s what he wanted to hear and that’s what he wanted me to say, and that’s what I said,” Cardona testified on Tuesday.

    When little Lazaro’s body was found in the bushes, he had been starved, beaten and his skull was bashed in. He weighed only 18 pounds – half of what he should have weighed at his age.

    This is the third time his mother is on trial for the murder. The Florida Supreme Court threw out both previous convictions due to procedural errors and “inflammatory” statements.

    Cardona claims it is Gonzalez who is responsible for Lazaro’s death and she did serve 20 years of a 40-year sentence for her admitted participation in his abuse.

    However, the state contends Cardona was the primary abuser and actually killed the boy.

    Gonzalez did not testify in this third trial. She had previously testified that Cardona beat Lazaro, and smashed his head with a baseball bat.

    Prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty this time. Cardona faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

    http://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/12/13...lipops-murder/

  6. #26
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    Florida mom guilty of killing son known as 'Baby Lollipops'

    By CURT ANDERSON
    The Associated Press

    MIAMI – A Florida mother on Wednesday was convicted for a third time of brutally abusing her toddler before fatally beating the boy who became known as "Baby Lollipops" in a case that riveted Miami decades ago.

    Jurors found 56-year-old Ana Maria Cardona guilty of murder and aggravated child abuse in the killing of 3-year-old Lazaro Figueroa, whose emaciated body was found hidden in bushes in Miami Beach in November 1990.

    The boy was beaten throughout his short life and was starving to death, weighing just 18 pounds. His body was covered in bumps and bruises and cigarette burns. His skull had been fractured, and his left arm was permanently bent at a 90-degree angle. The medical examiner called it child torture, according to trial testimony.

    "After suffering years, months, days of continuous abuse by her, under her watch, Lazaro inevitably withered and died. And lay in the dirt until his little heart stopped beating," prosecutor Reid Rubin said in a closing argument. "It was only a matter of time before he wound up dead because of her."

    Cardona was twice sentenced to death in previous trials. After her first trial in 1992, Cardona became the first woman in Florida history to be sentenced to capital punishment for killing her own child. But both convictions were overturned by the Florida Supreme Court, leading to this third trial.

    Circuit Judge Miguel M. de la O immediately sentenced Cardona to a life prison sentence. Prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty a third time.

    "There are wild beasts that show more empathy for their offspring than you showed for Lazaro," the judge said. "Your actions were monstrous."

    Trial evidence showed that Cardona had other children she did not abuse. The reason for Lazaro's suffering, Rubin said, was that his father had been a drug dealer who was slain by rivals — and with his death, Cardona lost a lavish lifestyle she had been enjoying until then.

    "She became angry and spiteful, and she took it out on an innocent young child who became her personal whipping boy. It escalated, more and more," the prosecutor said. "Lazaro died because his mother didn't love him."

    Cardona testified in her own defense that her female lover, Olivia Gonzalez, was responsible for Lazaro's death. Trial evidence showed that Gonzalez and Cardona fled to central Florida after the boy died, even enjoying a trip to Disney World, before their arrests.

    Defense attorney Steve Yermish said in his closing argument that Cardona was a poor mother and may have taken actions against Lazaro that amounted to child abuse. But he said she did not kill her son.

    "I can only assume that you are angry at Ana Cardona. And you have every right to be. Ana was a lousy mother. She failed as a mother. But you can't decide this case because you or I or anyone is angry at Ana for her failures," Yermish said. "The charge of aggravated child abuse may have been proven. The charge of murder has not."

    Unable to identify him initially, officers called the boy "Baby Lollipops" after the T-shirt he was wearing. It took more than a month for investigators to learn Lazaro's identity and track down the two women. Their big break came when a neighbor who had occasionally cared for Lazaro recognized him from police flyers.

    Gonzalez testified in previous trials, but not this time. She served 14 years in prison for her role in Lazaro's mistreatment when living with Cardona. She was never charged with killing him.

    Cardona told investigators after her arrest that Lazaro hit his head falling out of bed, and that she hid his body hoping not to lose custody of her other children. This week, she said that was not the truth.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/13...aring-end.html

  7. #27
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    Dead in prison: Brother of ‘Baby Lollipops,’ toddler tortured and murdered in Miami

    BY DAVID OVALLE
    The Miami Herald

    After three high-profile trials over decades, Ana Maria Cardona is now in state prison for life for the 1990 torture and murder of her son, a toddler who became known as “Baby Lollipops.”

    But the family’s tormented story continues. Her elder son, a 37-year-old named Juan Puente, has died while also in prison, the Miami Herald has learned.

    Puente, who was serving a 10-year sentence for burglary, died at Gulf Correctional Institution’s Annex in February.

    The Medical Examiner’s Office for Gulf County has not disclosed a cause and manner of death. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigates all in-custody deaths at state prison, won’t say if his death is being treated as suspicious.

    “We do have an active investigation regarding this case. We cannot provide any details at this time,” according to FDLE spokeswoman Jessica Cary.

    Puente had spent the majority of his adult life cycling in and out of jail and prison, usually on drug or burglary charges. While in jail in 2010, he was brought to a Miami courtroom to testify on his mother’s behalf in an effort to convince a jury to spare her life.

    “The case followed him around, every time he got arrested. It was like a revolving door,” said Cardona’s former lawyer, Edith Georgi. “The kid had a really sweet way about him. He was very easy to get to know and friendly. But he had an addiction he couldn’t cure.”

    Cardona’s current legal team declined to comment.

    Convicted and sentenced in December, the 56-year-old Cardona is currently housed at the Women’s Reception Center prison in Ocala.

    The Cardona family has been in the spotlight since the body of Lazaro “Baby Lollipops” Figueroa — severely malnourished and badly beaten — was found discarded outside a home in an upscale neighborhood of Miami Beach in November 1990.

    Investigators looking to identify the child dubbed him Baby Lollipops because of the design on his T-shirt. Cardona was soon arrested along with lover, Olivia Gonzalez. The two had fled to Orlando along with Cardona’s two other children, Puente and sister Tahimi Cardona.

    Prosecutors described Cardona as a cocaine-addled mother who grew to hate Lazaro, whose father was a drug dealer murdered in the late 1980s. Used to a lavish lifestyle, Cardona blew through what money she had left and was plunged into poverty, the state said.

    Extremely malnourished, Lazaro weighed only 18 pounds, about half what he should have for his age. Beatings had torn away the tissue between his lips and gums, making eating, drinking and talking painful. His left arm was permanently bent at a 90-degree angle. His head had been bashed repeatedly and his diaper, soiled and held together with duct tape, had caused an infection.

    At the time of their baby brother’s death, Puente was 10 years old, and Tahimi Cardona, 5. They lived with their mother and Gonzalez inside a small Miami efficiency, where prosecutors believe Lazaro was tortured and eventually beaten with a baseball bat — a wound that helped end his life.

    Cardona was first convicted in 1992, the first woman to be sent to Death Row for killing her own child. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned the conviction. She was again convicted and sent to Death Row in 2010.

    At that second trial, in an effort to have jurors spare Cardona, both Puente and Tahimi both testified.

    Tahimi Cardona, who went to live with foster parents, told jurors that she began writing her imprisoned mother at age 12, and the two managed to forge a relationship. She later graduated from college.

    Puente, however, did not fare well. He recorded his first of dozens of arrests at age 15, for stealing a car. The court system labeled him a ‘habitual violent offender.”

    “He first went to visit his mother when he was fifteen or sixteen. They have been writing to each other since that time. She urges him to stay out of trouble, and he finds his motivation in his relationship with her,” her defense lawyer wrote in an appeal.

    He served three years in prison for a 2006 robbery but didn’t stay out of trouble long. Arrest after arrest followed: grand theft, battery, cocaine possession, disorderly intoxication, loitering and prowling. He testified at his mother’s sentencing in 2010 while wearing his jail jumpsuit.

    Puente was taken into custody for good in 2012, when he broke into a Little Havana home in 2012, stealing a television set and punching a victim several times. He led police on a brief car chase before crashing, running away on foot before an officer corralled him.

    He was living at the Gulf Annex, where 17 inmates have died since 2013, most of them of natural causes. Only one inmate has been killed in a homicide; citing a lack of evidence, prosecutors declined to file charges relating to the death of Edgar Rios in 2015.

    Puente, however, is one of four inmates whose deaths over the past year are still being investigated, according to corrections. Authorities have yet to release causes or manners of death in any of those cases.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...207208364.html
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