A 19-year-old Orlando mother accused of leaving her days-old baby in a stranger’s driveway last August is due in court Friday for a plea hearing, in a case that has rattled an east Orlando block and reignited talk about Florida’s Safe Haven law.
Police say the infant was left in a car seat on Lido Street near Semoran Boulevard and appeared to be about a week old when a neighbor found the child. The case has become a grim example in local debates over what desperate parents can do to safely surrender a newborn without facing criminal charges.
According to WFTV, the mother is 19-year-old Angelica Bautista. She is expected to enter a plea to a child-neglect charge tied to allegedly abandoning the infant. WFTV reports Channel 9 planned to have a crew inside the courtroom to follow the hearing.
How the baby was found
Neighbors told ClickOrlando that a resident on the 5500 block of Lido Street stepped outside early one morning and discovered the baby sitting alone in a car seat in the driveway. The quiet residential street suddenly turned into a crime scene…