A 30-year-old Santa Ana woman was sentenced today to 24 years in state prison for stabbing a
new mom in 2010 to kidnap her infant child.
Gabriela Osorio
pleaded guilty to counts that, had she fought them and lost, exposed her to a possible life sentence.
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Osorio had told her boyfriend and family she was pregnant, but when they became suspicious in April 2010 she claimed she had given birth to a child. She then befriended a pregnant woman at a Santa Ana medical clinic and came to her home on May 26, 2010, bearing gifts for the now-new mom's five-day-old child.
Two days later, Osorio returned with something else in mind: with the baby and the new mother's then-3- and 4-year-old children in the room, the visitor first used a plastic bag and pillow to try to suffocate the mom, who bit off Osorio's finger while fighting for her life. Osorio then got a kitchen knife and stabbed the mother in the ribs, back and neck.
Gabriela Osorio Faces Arraignment Today for Allegedly Stabbing New Mom and Stealing Baby
Covered in blood, the mother escaped with her older children to a neighbor's home to call police. Osorio, meanwhile, hid in another part of the mother's house with the baby. As neighbors pleaded with Osorio to release the baby, she threatened to kill the newborn if the mother did not return. However, when she discovered police were on the way, she turned the baby over to a neighbor. Paramedics arrived also to treat the mother, who was hospitalized and later released.
Osorio copped today to one felony count each of attempted murder, kidnapping a
child under 14 years of age, first degree residential burglary,
criminal threats, false imprisonment by violence, and three felony
counts of aggravated assault with a knife causing great bodily injury
with sentencing enhancements and allegations for having a non-accomplice
present during a residential burglary, causing great bodily injury, and
the personal use of a deadly weapon.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.