TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — A woman who was convicted in 2005 of a count of murder and a count of injury to a child and was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the death of a toddler in Travis County, Texas, in 2003, has been exonerated after serving about 18 years, officials say.
In a news release, Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced that Judge Sage signed a motion to dismiss Rosa Jimenez’s murder and injury to a child indictment.
“The State asserted that it has determined no credible evidence exists that inculpates Ms. Jimenez and its belief that she is innocent of the crime for which she was convicted and sentenced for in this cause,” according to the news release.
Jimenez was a babysitter in Texas who was sentenced to 99 years in prison after she was convicted of the murder of a toddler in 2003, according to The New York Times.
Jimenez was charged with the death of 21-month-old Bryan Gutierrez, who died after having a severe brain injury from oxygen deprivation while she was babysitting him, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Recent evidence showed that the toddler’s death was accidental, KEYE reported.
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office Civil Integrity Unit, along with Jimenez’s counsel and the Innocence Project in January 2021, requested that she be released due to “false medical assumptions” that were used in convicting her, according to Garza. Pediatric airway experts testified in her writ hearing that the child’s death was accidental.
On Jan. 27, 2021, Sage ordered that Jimenez released on bond after finding her likely innocent and entitled her to a new trial, Garza said. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on May 31, 2023, agreed that she was entitled to relief due to false testimony at her trial. Her case went back to the trial court.
Garza said his office on July 24, 2023, filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Jimenez. This came following the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granting of post-conviction relief to Jimenez.
“As prosecutors, we have an obligation to ensure the integrity of convictions and to seek justice,” said Travis County District Attorney José Garza in the news release. “In the case against Rosa Jimenez, it is clear that false medical testimony was used to obtain her conviction, and without that testimony under the law, she would not have been convicted. Dismissing Ms. Jimenez’s case is the right thing to do. Our hearts also continue to break for the Gutierrez family. In this case, our criminal justice system failed them, and it also failed Rosa Jimenez. Our hope is that by our actions today, by exposing the truth that Ms. Jimenez did not commit the crime for which she was accused, we can give some sense of closure and peace to both families.”
“Rosa was the mom to a one-year-old girl and seven months pregnant when this ordeal began. She was forced to give birth to her son in jail, shackled, while awaiting trial. For the past 20 years, she has fought for this day, her freedom, and to be reunited with her children.” said Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and Ms. Jimenez’s attorney, in the news release. “Her wrongful conviction was not grounded in medical science, but faulty medical assumptions that turned a tragedy into a crime — with her own attorney doing virtually nothing to defend her. I wish we could say that what happened to Rosa was an isolated occurrence, but we have a real, pervasive problem in our country when it comes to how the criminal legal system treats the caregivers of children who are hurt or die. There are hundreds if not thousands, of innocent caregivers and parents in prison today based on faulty, unscientific medical testimony misclassifying accidents or illness as abuse.”
Jimenez is now 40 years old, the Times reported. Jimenez’s health reportedly has been a concern, according to KEYE. She has advanced kidney disease that required a transplant which is something she cannot obtain while in prison.
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