An unhoused Louisiana woman has been charged with second-degree murder after giving birth inside a porta-potty at a Waffle House in Gretna and leaving the newborn in the excrement-filled tank.
Police were summoned to the Waffle House on Westbank Expressway at approximately 3:17 a.m. on Thursday, March 26.
WDSU obtained 911 audio from the incident.
Officers arrived and spoke to Lekesha Lemelle, whose pants were stained with dried blood. She allegedly admitted she had given birth but could not recall how much time had passed between the delivery and her police interview. She also could not speak to the baby’s condition, according to an arrest warrant shared with Us Weekly.
Police and EMTs were directed to the porta-potty’s location, where they found the baby boy dead at the bottom of the tank.
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Medical examiners said their autopsy showed the full-term newborn was alive at birth and likely healthy.
Lemelle, 37, is currently in the hospital receiving medical treatment.
Jason DiMarco, Gretna’s Deputy Police Chief, told WDSU responding to calls like this can be shocking. “This isn’t anything you can prepare for — this isn’t something you expect to see, a newborn,” DiMarco said. “It’s horrifying.”
DiMarco added Lemelle could have surrendered the child.
“In this state, you can take a child, from infancy to 60 days no questions asked, take them to a police station, firehouse, medical facility, as long as you give them to a person, there are no questions asked, you won’t be prosecuted,” he explained.
Waffle House staffer Rongelia Steadman told the station they offered Lemelle meals after seeing she was sleeping on the streets nearby.
“You could have brought the baby to the fire station, police station, anywhere instead of having the baby in the porta-potty and leaving it,” Steadman, a grandmother, said. “You could have given that child to anybody, you could have came up here by us where you asked us for food and help.”
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Last month, a New Mexico woman gave birth inside of a portable toilet and “dropped” her newborn daughter into the holding tank, where the infant drowned, according to police.
Sonia Cristal Jimenez was charged with one count of intentional child abuse resulting in death, which is a first-degree felony, the Las Cruces Police Department said in a news release posted to Facebook on February 11.
An investigation revealed Jimenez likely cut her baby’s umbilical cord after giving birth, then put her inside of the toilet, police said.
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