Romina Tejerina (born 1983 in
San Pedro,
Jujuy Province
Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.
Geography
There are three main areas in Jujuy:
...
) is an
Argentine woman who was sentenced on June 10, 2005 to 14 years in prison for the murder of her newborn baby daughter. The baby was allegedly a product of a
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
that Tejerina suffered but was too afraid to reveal.
On February 23, 2003, Tejerina gave birth in her home to a baby girl. With the help of her sister, she cut the baby's
umbilical cord
In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or ''funiculus umbilicalis'') is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologi ...
and placed her in a small box. A few minutes later, Tejerina attacked the baby with a
sewing needle
A sewing needle, used for hand-sewing, is a long slender tool with a pointed tip at one end and a hole (or ''eye'') to hold the sewing thread. The earliest needles were made of bone or wood; modern needles are manufactured from high carbon steel ...
. The baby died two days later in the
hospital and Tejerina was arrested.
Tejerina's alleged sexual abuse was never proved. Her claims of being abused came to light well after she was charged with murder. Her alleged abuser was found not guilty, as it was claimed that Tejerina had consensual intercourse with him. As a result, there were no elements to support her defense about her mental condition at the time of the murder. She was freed on 24 June 2012, after serving half of her 14 year sentence.
References
External links
Supreme Court ruling
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tejerina, Romina
1983 births
Argentine female murderers
Argentine murderers of children
Argentine people convicted of murder
Filicides
Living people
National University of Tucumán alumni
People convicted of murder by Argentina
People from Jujuy Province