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Brooklyn Jail Guard Loses Custody of Baby She Had with Death Row Prisoner

A former jail guard impregnated by a prisoner now on death row temporarily lost parental rights in November 2013 to the infant son they conceived inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Nancy Gonzalez, 29, claims relatives of Ronell Wilson, who was sentenced to die for the 2003 murders of two undercover NYPD detectives, got her drunk at two family gatherings last summer where she brought the baby shortly after his birth. As a condition of her release on bail after being federally charged with having sex with a prisoner, Gonzalez, a recovering substance abuser, was prohibited from drinking.

According to court documents filed ahead of Gonzalez's sentencing for having sex with Wilson, Wilson's family was "subtly blaming her for his death verdict" while meeting with her over the summer, wrote Gonzalez's attorney Anthony Ricco, implying Wilson's family intentionally got Gonzalez drunk to violate her release conditions.

The infant is currently in the foster care of Gonzalez's maternal aunt.

Wilson's family reportedly wanted Gonzalez to testify about the imminent birth of their son at Wilson's sentencing in order to help him avoid the death penalty. However, Gonzalez refused.

Ricco, in asking the court for leniency ahead of Gonzalez's November 15, 2013 sentencing, also wrote that she suffers mental health issues from having been the victim of sexual molestation and rape by a stepfather, uncles and other men since childhood, and that she had sexual contact with at least eight jail staff members—both men and women—in the two years she worked as a guard.

Investigators believe Wilson, while awaiting sentencing, manipulated Gonzalez into having his child in order to later use the baby to argue against the death penalty.

Gonzalez was facing as much as 16 months in prison, but was also eligible for probation. In February 2014 she was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison.

 

Source: New York Daily News

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