Page Four
These are
my Adoptions thus far.
Warning: This page is full of graphic material that is potentially triggering to
survivors. Please be careful while reading the following children's stories.
Some stories have pictures with them. If you feel you can not handle
reading the following stories please hit the back button on your browser
now. Thank you.
(BABY LOLLIPOPS)
Little Lazaro's body was found in a cherry hedge, tossed away like garbage. When his little body was found, police were not able to identify him for weeks, they nicknamed him "Baby Lollipops", because of a design on the T-shirt he had been wearing. Baby Lollipops was only 3 years old, when he was found he had been beaten and was malnourished. The poor little boy may have clung to life for up to three days after he was dumped in the cherry hedge.
Some of the results of an autopsy showed that he had a toe crushed from blunt trauma, a deformed left foot, a wounded chest wall, knocked out teeth, his arm was distorted from endless battering and brain damage. When jury selection had started, half the candidates bowed out because they were so outraged over the torture this child suffered. Charged in the death of Baby Lollipops was his mother and her companion. On the stand her companion testifies how his mother had, starved, tied up, bit and beat the little boy with a baseball bat, fracturing his skull, killing him.
The companion, Olivia Gonzalez-Mendoza, who had once admitted to beating the little boy with a baseball bat was sentenced to 40 years in prison. His mother Ana Maria Cardona, was sentenced to die in the electric chair.
Keep
reading on... I have found the court documents from this case and have
copied
them below for all to read.
The following information was found here:
http://www.floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us/case_updates/162180.doc
The Commission on Capital Cases updates this
information regularly. This information, however, is subject to change and
may not reflect the latest status of an inmate’s case and should not be
relied on for statistical or legal purposes.
CARDONA, Ana Marie (H/F)
DC #162180
DOB: 11/26/61
Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Dade County, Case #90-48092
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable David L. Tobin
Trial Attorney: Lee Weissenborn - Special Public
Defender
Attorney, Direct Appeal: Lee Weissenborn - Special
Public Defender
Attorney, Collateral Appeals: Maria Perez-Garcia – CCRC-S
Date of Offense: 10/31/90
Date of Sentence: 04/01/92
Circumstances of Offense:
Ana Marie Cardona was convicted and sentenced to death
for the long-standing abuse and murder of her three-year-old son Lazaro
Figueroa.
The body of a severely beaten unidentified child was found abandoned in the
Miami Beach area on 11/02/90. The boy was later determined to be Lazaro
Figueroa, the youngest child of Ana Marie Cardona. Cardona was subsequently
arrested in St. Cloud, Florida in connection with the murder.
The circumstances surrounding the abuse and murder of Lazaro were revealed
during Cardona’s trial: When Cardona’s well-off, drug-dealing boyfriend was
murdered, he left her a $100,000 estate, which she squandered in a matter of
months. Cardona had two children from him, the youngest being Lazaro.
Cardona, penniless, left her children with friends and family, and they were
subsequently taken by the social services. Eventually, the children were
returned to their mother, and during this time, Cardona became romantically
involved with Olivia Gonzalez-Mendoza. The two women hardly worked, and
supported themselves, their children and their drug habits by shoplifting.
After the children were returned to her, Cardona began horrific and frequent
abuse of Lazaro, as she blamed him for her fall from wealth. Lazaro was
often tied to the bed, locked in a closet, or left in the bathtub with
extremely cold or hot water. When his body was found, it was covered in
bruises and bedsores, and the child weighed only 18 pounds.
On 10/31/90, Cardona split Lazaro’s head open with a baseball bat, and when
the child would not stop screaming, she beat him to death. Cardona and
Gonzalez-Mendoza dumped the body in a Miami Beach neighborhood, fled to
Orlando and were eventually apprehended in St. Cloud.
Medical examiners testified that Lazaro was dying from
the extreme abuse and neglect he suffered at the hands of his mother and her
lover even before he was fatally beaten with the bat that day. Lazaro had
endured numerous tortures prior to his death, suffering brain damage due to
untreated meningitis, anemia, malnutrition and spinal cord damage.
Additional Information:
Immigration and Naturalization Services in Miami have placed a detainer
on Ana Marie Cardona.
Codefendant Information:
Olivia Gonzalez-Mendoza was convicted of Aggravated Child Abuse and
Second Degree Murder. Gonzalez-Mendoza was sentenced to 15 years and 40
years, respectively, for her part in the murder of Lazaro Figueroa.
Trial Summary:
12/06/90 Defendant arrested.
01/11/91 Defendant indicted on:
Count I:
First-Degree Murder
Count II:
Aggravated Child Abuse
03/31/92 The jury found the defendant guilty
on both counts.
03/31/92 Upon advisory sentencing, the jury, by an 8 to 4 majority,
voted for the death penalty.
04/01/92 The defendant was sentenced as
followed:
Count I:
First-Degree Murder – Death
Count II:
Aggravated Child Abuse – 15 years
Appeal Summary:
Florida Supreme Court - Direct Appeal
FSC #79,787
641 So. 2d 361 (Fla. 1994)
05/04/92 Appeal filed.
06/02/94 FSC affirmed the convictions and
sentence of death.
08/31/94 Rehearing denied.
09/30/94 Mandate issued.
United States Supreme Court - Petition for Writ of
Certiorari
USSC #94-7096
513 U.S. 1160; 115 S. Ct. 1122; 130 L. Ed. 2d 1085
(U.S. 1995)
11/29/94 Petition filed.
02/21/95 Petition denied.
State Circuit Court - 3.850 Motion
CC #90-48092
03/24/97 Motion filed.
05/26/00 Motion denied.
Florida Supreme Court - 3.850 Appeal
FSC #SC00-1366
06/26/00 Appeal filed.
07/11/02 FSC reversed Cardona’s conviction and sentence and
remanded for a new trial due to a Brady violation.
09/11/02 Appellee’s Motion for Rehearing denied.
10/11/02 Mandate issued.
Florida Supreme Court - Petition for Writ of Habeas
Corpus
FSC #SC01-1056
05/22/01 Petition filed.
07/11/02 FSC granted Cardona’s 3.850 Appeal, citing a Brady
violation committed by the State. Cardona’s conviction and sentence were
reversed and her Habeas Petition was denied as moot.
Factors Contributing to the Delay in the
Imposition of the Sentence
Cardona’s
Motion to Vacate Judgment and Sentence (3.850) took over three years to
reach a denial. On 07/11/02, the Florida Supreme Court granted Cardona’s
3.850 Appeal and remanded her case for a new trial.
Case Information:
Cardona filed a Direct Appeal in the Florida Supreme
Court on 05/04/92. In that appeal, Cardona argued that a limited jury
instruction should have been given in conjunction with the evidence of abuse
presented to the jury, and that the court erred in refusing to consider
non-statutory mitigating evidence. Cardona also raised the issued that
her co-defendant received a lesser sentence for her part in the
murder. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentence of
death on 06/02/94.
On 11/29/94, Cardona filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the United
States Supreme Court, which was denied on 02/21/95.
Next, on 03/24/97, Cardona filed a Motion to Vacate Judgment and Sentence
(3.850) in the State Circuit Court. When that motion was denied on
05/26/00, Cardona steadfastly filed an appeal of that decision in the
Florida Supreme Court on 06/26/00. On 07/11/02, the Florida Supreme Court
reversed Cardona’s conviction and sentence and remanded for a new trial
citing a Brady violation committed by the State. The Florida Supreme Court
found that the State withheld material criminal investigative reports of
interviews with Olivia Gonzales-Mendoza, the co-defendant, which
contradicted her testimony against Cardona at trial. By failing to disclose
these reports, the State prevented the defense from impeaching Gonzales
credibility as the State’s key witness.
Cardona filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Florida Supreme
Court on 05/22/01. On 07/11/02, Cardona’s conviction and sentence were
reversed when the Florida Supreme Court granted her 3.850 Appeal. As such,
her Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus was denied as moot.
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