Bianca DeSouza, Boca Raton, Florida woman charged with manslaughter over botched home birth. Woman struggling with bipolar had been considering giving up the baby for adoption when she gave birth home alone only for the child to become stuck in boxer shorts.
A 21-year-old Florida woman has been charged with manslaughter after giving birth at home alone — and allegedly doing nothing as the baby boy suffocated while trapped between her boxer shorts and legs.
Bianca DeSouza, of Boca Raton, was arrested Friday on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect with great bodily harm in connection with the botched home birth death in May last year, online court records show.
She later admitted leaving the newborn trapped with only his head sticking out of her boxer shorts — and browsing social media on her phone before checking on him, an affidavit cited by WPTV stated.
Her mother then discovered the unresponsive infant on a bed while her daughter — then just 19 — was in the shower.
The mom called 911, and was heard yelling, ‘Bianca, what the f–k!’ and ‘the baby is dead.’
‘Bianca giggles and says, ‘I’m sorry, my mom is loud,” the affidavit said of the 911 call.
Palm Beach sheriff’s deputies and fire crews gave the still-warm newborn CPR and epinephrine before rushing him to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
DeSouza had been diagnosed as a bipolar schizophrenic and admitted regularly drinking and using drugs throughout her pregnancy — including daily marijuana and vaping as well as Xanax, oxycodone and shots of Hennessy cognac, the documents show.
DeSouza’s family said the then 19 year old was also estranged from her husband from the military and conflicted whether to put the newborn up for adoption.
The young mom-to-be initially wanted to terminate her pregnancy, but then planned to put the baby up for adoption, her mom told officials, according to the affidavit.
DeSouza later told investigators she was ‘confused’ and ‘didn’t know what was going on’ when she gave birth.
She was ‘wearing shorts that she pulled to the side during the birth,’ she said — with a pathologist saying that a line across the baby’s neck suggests he was trapped between the teen’s thigh and her shorts.
The newborn ‘laid in her boxers for about ten minutes’ and stopped crying with his head poking out of the shorts, DeSouza said in interviews this October about the pathology findings, the documents said.
‘She just laid back and got on her phone, Instagram,’ the documents said, quoting her as saying: ‘I just sat there.’
When she finally pulled out the dead baby, she ‘laid next to him for a while before getting up to take a shower,’ the documents said.
The medical examiner listed the cause of death as asphyxia and the manner of death homicide.
DeSouza was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child negligence. She booked into jail and later released on $25,000 bond.
Desouza’s next court date is set for 10:30 a.m. Jan. 8.
If convicted, DeSouza faces up to ten years in prison.
