An 18-year-old woman has been charged with first-degree murder in Weld County in connection to the death of her newborn child.
Leiyla Cepeda was arrested on Friday, on her birthday, and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, according to the district attorney’s office.
She allegedly stabbed the child in a rural Weld County home, according to prosecutors.
On Wednesday, officers responded to a call about a deceased female infant found inside a residence in Nunn. “The infant had what appeared to be stab wounds to her body,” the release said.
Cepeda was 17 at the time of the alleged incident. Born on June 10, 2004, she is being charged as an adult.
Cepeda told emergency responders that “she wasn’t feeling well and that she had not informed her family that she was pregnant,” according to an arrest affidavit. “She delivered the baby who was not breathing and she had used a small pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord.” She then then went upstairs to take a shower.
A pair of scissors was found in the basement, where the child was born, and seized as evidence, according to the affidavit. Blood and the umbilical cord was found in the basement of the home.
An autopsy has been performed by the Weld County Coroner’s Office and Dr. Michael Burson noted “a significant number of puncture wounds that appeared to be centered around the infant’s chest, rib cage and abdomen,” according to the affidavit.
The baby “appeared to be near full development and nourished.”
Burson, according to the affidavit, concluded that the child was born alive, not stillborn, and that the cause of death was “multiple sharp force injuries, and the manner of death to be homicide.”
Cepeda is currently in custody in a local hospital. A court date has not yet been scheduled in the case.
