![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/angel-baby-doe.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
CLEBURNE, Texas – The mother of the abandoned Texas newborn nicknamed Angel Baby Doe has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Mother Sentenced ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/v-johnson-co-angel-baby-doe-sentencing-4a_00.00.16.50.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
What’s new:<\/p>\n
Shelby Stotts pleaded guilty recently to second-degree manslaughter. She was then sentenced to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Stotts is from Covington, which is located in Hill County, about an hour south of Dallas.<\/p>\n
In 2024, new DNA technology helped detectives identify Stotts as the biological mother of a newborn baby girl who was found dead on the side of the road in nearby Johnson County.<\/p>\n
The baby\u2019s father was also identified, but he told investigators he didn\u2019t know Stotts was pregnant. He has since named his daughter Taryn Angel Moreno.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
“This child was left nameless, bleeding, exposed to the elements, in short, left to die. But the good people of Johnson County opened their hearts to her, named her, provided her with a burial plot and headstone, gave her a funeral…and 24 years later, a Johnson County jury has given her justice. This was a cold case, but the need for justice does not fade with the passage of time. We will always fight for and seek justice no matter how long it takes,” said Johnson County District Attorney Timothy Good.<\/p>\n
The Cold Case ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/v-johnson-co-angel-baby-doe-sentencing-4a_00.00.36.18.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The backstory:<\/p>\n
According to the Johnson County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the body of a newborn baby girl was discovered by a resident who was picking up cans on the side of the road between Alvarado and Burleson in 2001.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office believes she had been dumped \u2013 wrapped in a jacket and left to die.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A medical examiner determined she had been born alive. The ME ruled that she died of foul play, likely bleeding to death because her umbilical cord was still attached and not clamped.<\/p>\n
Detectives referred to her as Angel Baby Doe for the next 20 years because they were never able to identify her or locate her mother.<\/p>\n
Finally Identified ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/v-johnson-co-angel-baby-doe-sentencing-4a_00.00.25.48.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
In 2024, the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office announced the baby\u2019s biological mother had been identified, located, and arrested.<\/p>\n
A few years earlier, Johnson County detectives had sent forensic evidence to a lab near Houston for DNA testing.<\/p>\n
“We were able to do the genealogy, which took a long time,” said Dr. Kristen Mittelman, the lab\u2019s chief development officer. “It was a difficult case, but we were able to actually provide the identity to law enforcement.”<\/p>\n
In this case, scientists built a DNA profile and then compared the profile to a family tree. That led investigators to Stotts.<\/p>\n
“I couldn\u2019t be more proud to be part of giving this baby her name back and get justice for her,” Dr. Mittelman said.<\/p>\n
The Source: The information in this story comes from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the Johson County District Attorney’s Office, and past news coverage.<\/p>\n
Johnson County<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article CLEBURNE, Texas – The mother of the abandoned Texas newborn nicknamed Angel Baby Doe has been sentenced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1046,438,223,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-153906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-johnson-county","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}