New Mexico mom sentenced to 18 years for tossing baby in trash bin

A New Mexico teenage mother was sentenced Monday to a mandatory 18 years in prison for tossing her newborn son into a trash bin behind a shopping center, but a state district judge cited mental health concerns and the defendant's age in suspending two years of the punishment.

Jurors convicted Alexis Avila, 19, of child abuse involving great bodily harm following a days-long trial last month in which her public defender argued her actions were not premeditated and that a previously undiagnosed mental health disorder played a role.

Judge William Shoobridge told Avila that had it not been for luck and the grace of God he would have been deliberating a sentence in a murder case as there was a high probability the child would have died had it not been found by three people looking through the dumpster that winter day in Hobbs, near the Texas border.

He ordered that Avila continue with treatment, medication and her higher education while serving her sentence.

"You’ve given yourself a life sentence of knowing what you did with your child," he told he...