New Mexico Supreme Court Bars Bodycam Footage in Newborn Death Case, Citing Doctor-Patient Privilege

The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously determined that police bodycam footage capturing a woman’s admission to concealing her newborn in a hospital trash receptacle is inadmissible in her murder prosecution, finding the statements fall under physician-patient confidentiality protections. The ruling also barred prosecutors from presenting hospital surveillance video and additional bodycam footage recorded inside the medical facility.

Alexee Trevizo, arrested at age 19 in 2023 and charged with first-degree murder and evidence tampering, was recorded confessing to hospital personnel and her mother after staff discovered the infant in a trash bin. The high school cheerleader admitted placing the newborn in the garbage after workers reported the discovery to law enforcement, but the state’s highest judicial body found the confession unlawfully obtained.

According to the bodycam footage, Trevizo’s physician entered the hospital room accompanied by two armed officers and informed her that a deceased newborn had been located in the trash. The teenager responded that she did not know what else to do and claimed the infant “was not crying or nothing.” She later confirmed to her mother that she had placed the baby in a trash bag.

Justice Michael E. Vigil wrote that the doctor “ambushed” Trevizo by disclosing her private medical information in the presence of armed law enforcement without authorization or warning. The court determined that because Trevizo remained in active medical crisis and received no opportunity to exclude individuals from the room, any waiver of physician-patient privilege could not be considered voluntary.

Trevizo arrived at Artesia General Hospital on January 27, 2023, complaining of severe back pain. Hospital staff administered morphine and conducted tests while she repeatedly denied pregnancy, then fled to a locked bathroom where her mother waited approximately 20 minutes before she opened the door.

Hospital workers discovered the teenager cleaning substantial blood from the floor and initially suspected she had attempted a self-induced abortion. While a janitor cleaned the bathroom, they detected an unexpectedly heavy trash container and located the deceased infant bound inside a plastic bag beneath bloody paper towels and refuse.

The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator classified the death as homicide, determining the newborn died from asphyxiation caused by entrapment in the sealed trash bag. Autopsy findings revealed air in the lungs and evidence of brain hemorrhage consistent with oxygen deprivation.

Trevizo, now 22, has consistently maintained the infant was stillborn and insisted she remained unaware of her pregnancy until delivering in the hospital bathroom. The district attorney’s case previously relied on the bodycam confession and hospital security footage documenting her movements, but both evidentiary sources are now prohibited from trial.

Following her May 2023 arrest, Trevizo was released pending trial and completed her high school senior year without restrictive monitoring. She subsequently enrolled at New Mexico State University, where an online petition garnered more than 30,000 signatures demanding her removal from campus.