A Texas woman who spent years in prison on a murder conviction related to the death of a toddler in her care in 2003 has been exonerated.
Prosecutors dropped the murder charges against Rosa Jimenez, 40, on Monday, roughly three months after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned her conviction and sent the case back to a Travis County district court for a new trial, The New York Times reported.
Jimenez had maintained her innocence from the start despite being found guilty of murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison for the choking death of 21-month-old Bryan Gutierrez.
The child had choked on a wad of five paper towels while Jimenez babysat him at her home.
She was convicted in 2005. During her trial, the prosecution leveraged expert testimony to argue that the tragic incident could not have been the result of an accident.
Dr. John Boulet, who treated the toddler when he arrived at the hospital, was one such expert witness. He testified that the wad of paper towels taken from the boy’s throat was almost as large as his fist, which led him to conclude that “it would have to be put down there,” according to court records.
The defense countered by pointing to witness testimony that the child liked to play with paper towels and often put things in his mouth. Jimenez, pregnant with her own child at the time, had also attempted to get help from neighbors to dislodge the wad from the boy’s throat when she discovered he was choking.
Several appeals filed by Jimenez and her lawyers failed over the years. The case nonetheless earned attention when Jimenez was featured in My Life Inside, a 2007 Spanish-language documentary directed by Lucía Gajá, according to NYT.
In 2021, Jimenez was released from prison on bond after a former expert witness for the prosecution filed an affidavit reversing her testimony, claiming that the toddler’s death could have been the result of an accident. Moreover, a panel of specialists in pediatric airways had testified on Jimenez’s behalf.
Recognizing the shifts in expert opinion, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in May that Jimenez should be afforded a new trial. However, Travis County District Attorney José Garza filed a motion to formally dismiss the charges.
“It is clear that false medical testimony was used to obtain her conviction,” claimed Garza in a statement, according to the NYT. “Dismissing Ms. Jimenez’s case is the right thing to do.”
Still, Jimenez has a battle of another kind ahead, as she has advanced kidney disease and urgently needs a transplant.