Sherman, Texas Dumpster Baby Lady Facing Serious Charges – Sherman & Plano, TX Criminal Defense Lawyer

I have been at a conference and hadn’t had time to chime in on Sherman Dumpster Baby Lady. After leaving her newborn in a dumpster behind a restaurant, she finds herself in quite a legal pickle.

Abandoning a child or conduct endangering a child can get you in serious doo doo quickly. If the State wanted to hit her as hard as possible, they could ask the grand jury to indict her for attempted capital murder. The grand jury would only have to find probable cause that she intended to kill a child under six years old and attempted to do so.

However, the easiest charge against her would be second degree (two to twenty years TDCJ) abandoning or endangering a child, a violation of 22.041 of the Penal Code:

§ 22.041. ABANDONING OR ENDANGERING CHILD. (a) In this
section, “abandon” means to leave a child in any place without
providing reasonable and necessary care for the child, under
circumstances under which no reasonable, similarly situated adult
would leave a child of that age and ability.
(b) A person commits an offense if, having custody, care, or
control of a child younger than 15 years, he intentionally abandons
the child in any place under circumstances that expose the child to
an unreasonable risk of harm…
(e) An offense under Subsection (b) is a felony of the
second degree if the actor abandons the child under circumstances
that a reasonable person would believe would place the child in
imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental
impairment.