Ava Marie Guerra, 29, was indicted on one count of injury to a child — after authorities say she failed to seek care for her baby — and one count of abandoning or injuring a child for allegedly ingesting methamphetamine while pregnant.
Bexar County jail
A grand jury indicted a woman accused of abandoning a newborn baby on a sidewalk during below-freezing temperatures last year.
Ava Marie Guerra, 29, was indicted on one count of injury to a child — after authorities say she failed to seek care for her baby — and one count of abandoning or injuring a child for allegedly ingesting methamphetamine while pregnant.
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Guerra was scheduled to appear in court Thursday after her attorney on Dec. 3 filed a motion to have an examining trial. However, it was canceled after she was indicted Thursday.
The motion requested the hearing as to “examine the truth of the accusations made.” The motion states that Guerra has been on house arrest since Jan. 21, 2025, and she was still awaiting indictment.
Her felony case was assigned to the 290th District Court with state District Judge Jennifer Pena.
Guerra was arrested after police accused her of leaving her baby on an East Side sidewalk on the evening of Jan. 21, 2025. The temperatures that night were as low as 28 degrees and felt like 17 degrees, according to National Weather Service data.
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On the evening the baby was found, police officers were approached by a 34-year-old man who said he found the newborn near Nolan and Cherry streets.
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The baby was wrapped in a towel and placed in a basket. He was breathing weakly and the umbilical cord was still attached, police said.
Detectives who interviewed the 34-year-old man found he was not being truthful with his story, and confessed to knowing where the baby was born and who the mother was, police said.
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According to an arrest affidavit, an off-duty SAPD officer was at a downtown Whataburger restaurant when the 34-year-old man approached him and said he needed help taking the newborn to a hospital.
The man told the officer that the baby needed “immediate medical attention” due to neglect from his mother, Guerra, according to the affidavit.
The baby was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
A detective met up with Guerra that same day while she received medical care after giving birth.
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She told him that she learned that she was pregnant two months earlier, but she chose not to pursue prenatal medical care. She said she “unexpectedly gave birth” to the baby boy in a toilet at a friend’s apartment, according to the affidavit.
After giving birth, Guerra did not call 911 or seek medical care for the newborn, police said.
Hospital staff told police that the baby was in “critical, life-threatening condition” and “would require intensive life-saving medical interventions and procedures for the foreseeable future due to his condition.”
The baby also had methamphetamine in his system, police said.
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Following her release from the hospital, Guerra stopped communicating with police, and a warrant was issued for her arrest, according to the affidavit.
Court records show that Guerra’s current bond conditions demand that she does not have contact with the baby.