New Mexico mother, 19, sentenced to prison for tossing her newborn baby in trash dumpster

A New Mexico teenage mother was sentenced Monday to a mandatory 18 years in prison for tossing her newborn son into a trash dumpster behind a shopping center, but a state district judge cited mental health concerns and the defendant's age in suspending two years of the punishment.

Jurors convicted Alexis Avila, 19, of child abuse involving great bodily harm following a days-long trial last month in which her public defender argued her actions were not premeditated and that a previously undiagnosed mental health disorder played a role.

Judge William Shoobridge told Avila that had it not been for luck and the grace of God he would have been deliberating a sentence in a murder case, as there was a high probability the child would have died had it not been found that winter day in Hobbs, near the Texas border.