KEN RITTER
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas mother who police say was being treated for anxiety is expected to face felony charges that could get her decades in prison for allegedly throwing her 7-month-old son, her 1½-year-old daughter and herself out a second-story window, according to a court document made public Thursday.
Luz Robledo Ibarra, 34, remained hospitalized with a broken pelvis and other injuries following the pre-dawn June 12 incident at a northeast Las Vegas home, police said in an arrest report that detailed severe facial injuries to the girl and critical head injuries and broken bones to the baby.
Prosecutors are considering two charges of attempted murder against Robledo Ibarra and two counts of felony child abuse causing substantial bodily harm. Each carries a possible sentence of two to 20 years in state prison.
During a hospital interview this week she told investigators in Spanish that she felt depressed and had trouble sleeping, police said. She also denied having thoughts of hurting herself or her children, but she said she heard voices telling her to throw the children and herself out the window.
Robledo Ibarra described throwing the older child out first, then the baby and then herself, police said.
Her mother, who lived in the house, told police that Robledo Ibarra had been depressed after the birth of her son last November and was having trouble caring for her three children, including a son older than the two youngest children.
The grandmother told police that after her other grandson used a coin to unlock a closed door to the room where Robledo Ibarra slept with the two youngest children, she found the open window.
Outside, she saw Robledo Ibarra and the two younger children on the ground, the grandmother said.
A doctor who had been treating Robledo Ibarra reported prescribing the antidepressant Zoloft for her after she complained in March and April of insomnia, anxiety, headaches and neck and back pain, police said.
A Las Vegas mother of two who dealt with postpartum depression after the birth of her son almost 10 years ago said she thought Robledo Ibarra might have experienced similar feelings.
“These women, you can’t judge them for what they’ve done or what they’re going through because you’ll never understand,” said Vanessa Delorenzis, a former postpartum depression support group leader. “If women would speak about it more, I think more would find support with each other.”
Delorenzis, 35, said that sharing feelings with family members, medical professionals and other mothers can be important to new mothers.
“I have people who think I could have just turned it off by walking or running. That’s not really the case,” Delorenzis said. “I was able to call my parents and they were able to talk to me. But I can say that in certain moments I was not in my right mind.”
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