COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Little Village woman beat her infant granddaughter to death with a wrench and then used a motorized saw to cut the girl, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Manuela Rodriguez, 52, is charged with first-degree murder in the brutal death of her 7-month-old granddaughter, authorities said. Prosecutors said she beat the girl with an 18-inch pipe wrench.
The girl, 7-month-old Rosie Herrera, died of multiple blunt force injuries to her head, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. The case was ruled a homicide.
Rodriguez also had shoved a sock down the girl's throat, which the medical examiner's office ruled was a secondary cause of death from probable suffocation.
After the girl was dead, Rodriguez cut her chest, throat and neck with the saw, prosecutors said.
Police found Rosie about 9:30 a.m. Monday when officers responded to a 911 call in the 2800 block of South Avers Avenue. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Rodriguez was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with self-inflicted wounds, police said. She admitted to paramedics and police that she had killed her granddaughter, prosecutors said.
In bond court Wednesday, prosecutors said Rodriguez lived with her boyfriend downstairs from Rosie, Rosie's mother and her 9-year-old sister in a two-flat in Little Village. Rodriguez was often left to babysit the little girl when family members went to work.
Around 7:45 a.m. Monday, Rodriquez was left alone with the girl in the upstairs apartment while Rodriguez's boyfriend drove her daughter. Some time after, Rodriguez called her sister and admitted she had killed her granddaughter, prosecutors said.
The man returned to the first-floor apartment around 9 a.m. Shortly after, Rodriguez's sister arrived at the home and alerted him to what had happened. The two then looked through a second-floor window and saw Rodriguez on the kitchen floor next to the infant, who was surrounded by a pool of blood, prosecutors said.
The two forced their way into the apartment and called for paramedics. Rodriguez then admitted to police, paramedics and family what she had done. She also admitted her deeds to police in a recorded confession post Miranda, prosecutors said.
Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Rodriguez held without bail.
"She's obviously a threat to herself and society," the judge said.
Rodriguez's family refused to comment following the hearing. Instead, Ignatius Villasenor, who represented Rodriguez, spoke on their behalf.
"The family is going through, obviously, a very, very difficult grieving process. The loss of a child, obviously, is bad enough, but then to see a family member facing this — it just compounds all of this," he said.
During court, Villasenor said Rodriguez was born in Mexico but had lived in the United States for 40 years and was a U.S. citizen for the past 15 years.
After, he said Rodriguez was a sweet and wonderful person and that family saw nothing to indicate "this would ever happen."
"To me what's striking is the tragedy of it. You have a child being cared by someone who's trusted by family and someone, who's always been there from what I understand not only for her family, but for everybody else," said Villasenor outside of Courtroom 101 following the hearing.
"Then for circumstances to turn into this, it's horrible for the family. They are a wonderful group of people and I just see how hard it is for them and my heart goes out for them," he said.
Villasenor said Rodriguez suffers from psychological issues, which prompted him to ask for her to be evaluated at Cermak Hospital, which Ciesel obliged. Rodriguez refused to elaborate on her mental health status and record.
"We're certainly hoping she gets the kind of care that she needs, whether it be a watch to make sure she is safe [during] her time there and that she doesn't try to harm herself," he said.
Contributing: Erica Demarest
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