A California woman convicted of abducting and killing a 3-week-old girl could spend the rest of her life behind bars for the crime, CBS News reports.
A Los Angeles judge on Friday sentenced Giseleangelique Rene D’Milian to 25 years to life in prison after she pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and attempted murder.
The woman and her friend kidnapped the child, Eliza De La Cruz, from a Long Beach house three years ago. Her parents and an uncle were all shot and injured during the kidnapping.
Authorities believe the incident was tied to a different failed kidnapping attempt nearby in which a mother was hurt.
Investigators believe D’Milian, now 50, went after the babies after she lied to her married boyfriend that she had twins.
“She fabricated a story and wanted him to believe these children were his. Why? We don’t know,” Long Beach police Lt. Lloyd Cox said after D’Milian was arrested in 2015.
According to police, D’Milian and the accomplice, Anthony McCall, followed the baby’s mother in January 2015 while riding a public bus through Long Beach. D’Milian also had a short conversation with the mother as she left the bus.
Two hours later, McCall forced his way into the woman’s home, shot her and two other people and stole Eliza.
The child was discovered dead in a trash bin the next day 100 miles away near the Mexican border after apparently suffocating.
The following month, in February 2015, McCall used a baseball bat to beat a 23-year-old mother in a hotel room with the intent of kidnapping her 4-month-old son.
But McCall got scared and ran away when others at the hotel notified staff, who came to the woman’s rescue. McCall escaped and the baby was not injured.
At the time, police did not know D’Milian had created an online identity in which she called herself a “masterful genius behind so many ventures,” which purportedly included a career in music, motivational speaking and book publishing.
McCall has been charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty.
[Feature image: Giseleangelique Rene D’Milian/giseledmilian.com; Eliza De La Cruz/Long Beach Police Department]
