The grandfather of a newborn boy left in a dumpster in Hobbs, New Mexico, says he’ll fight for custody. Fifty-year-old Oscar Astorga said his 16-year-old son Stephen didn’t know that his ex, 18-year-old Alexis Avila, was even pregnant until he saw video of her apparently abandoning their baby. Now Astorga says he'll do anything he can to get his grandson back.
“Of course we're trying to get custody,” he told the Daily Mail. “Of course."
Astorga and his son didn't know about the baby until surveillance video surfaced showing Avila apparently leaving the boy in a dumpster on January 7.
The video was taken from a nearby security camera at Rig Outfitters and Home Store at the Broadmoor Shopping Center and was shared by the store’s owner, Joe Imbriale. The footage shows a woman, later identified as Avila, getting out of her white sedan about 2 p.m. and placing a black garbage bag inside a dumpster. She then drove away.
Or as Imbriale put it, according to ABC 7: "The girl just drives up like it's a piece of trash, reaches in the back of a car, dumps it, just drives off, no remorse."
The garbage bag contained a son she’d given birth to earlier that day.
The baby was only discovered about 7:42 p.m. when passersby heard the baby’s cries and started to investigate. Video shows a woman discovering the bag, opening it, and reacting to the child inside.
Police were called about 8 p.m., and the child was brought to Lubbock Hospital in Texas for specialized pediatric treatment. Despite having an extremely low body temperature and needing a blood transfusion, feeding tube, and oxygen when he arrived at the hospital, he was in stable condition by Sunday, police reported.
Police tracked the baby to Avila using details of her car captured on the recording.
When questioned by authorities, the teenager claimed she’d gone to the doctor’s office for stomach pains on January 6 and claimed she was completely unaware that she was pregnant. She told police she gave birth to the boy the next day, panicked, wrapped the baby boy in a towel, put him in a trash bag, and drove around before ultimately deciding on leaving him in a dumpster.
She was arrested and has been charged with attempt to commit a felony and child abuse, according to ABC 7.
Stephen broke up with Avila in August 2021 and claimed that she told him she miscarried.
Text messages between Stephen and a friend that Astorga shared with the Daily Mail showed that the teen believed Avila had lost the child up until he saw that she’d been arrested and the charge.
Astorga, who runs a company servicing the local oil and gas industry, told the news outlet that it was a shock to learn he was a grandfather.
“When you don't know and then all of a sudden someone calls you? It's like wow,” he said.
He said he's willing to go to any lengths to get custody of the child, whom they’ve named Saul.
Saul is in the care of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, but Astorga has hired a lawyer to help his family get custody of the child.
“He is my grandson,” Astorga said. “That's why we can't comment on anything because we're trying to get my grandson.
“I'd like to tell you a lot of things. I'm a God-fearing man. I just can't comment right now,” he added.
Astorga said his family has been put in danger after the video went public.
“There's a lot of people on social media that have been sending death threats to our family,” he said. “We haven't done anything wrong. My friend saw them. These people on social media. We have nothing to hide but we can't comment right now.”
On Tuesday, Avila’s mother, Martha Avila, finally spoke out about the case. “Everyone makes mistakes,” she told the Daily Mail. She also said she had no idea her daughter was pregnant before she gave birth and that their family will not be sharing their side of the story.
Avila was scheduled for a detention hearing the afternoon of January 12, after which her lawyer was expected to issue a statement.
“People can talk and give their opinion,” Martha Avila told the newspaper. “Everybody makes mistakes. People can preach all they want, they can judge all they want but we only care about the judgment of one.”
Friends of Avila have come forward and questioned the story she told police.
The friends are saying Avila was “open about her pregnancy” at school, the Daily Mail reported.
“I heard her talk about being pregnant around late September, early October,” an unnamed classmate told the news outlet. “She never expressed that it was a bad thing that she was pregnant.”
The teen allegedly dropped out of high school on December 17. Officials at her school, Hobbs High School, have refused to comment on the case.
