An attorney purporting to represent the “unborn child” of a woman accused of shooting to death another woman last year has filed an emergency petition for the child’s release from jail, which would mean the accused murderer’s release as well.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Natalia Harrell was charged last July with shooting Yvette Borcella while the two — along with five others — were in an Uber in downtown Miami. Video from the Cadillac Escalade, which The New York Post obtained last week, shows Harrell and Borcela argue and scuffle before Harrell pulls a gun out of her purse and fires.
The Uber driver immediately stopped the vehicle, and Harrell and the other five passengers fled the scene. The group had been at a downtown club, witnesses said, and the conflict between Borcela — a 28-year-old mother of three — and Harrell began there, with Harrell reportedly upset that Borcela had begun to “drink and dance.”
Harrell has already filed to have the charges against her dismissed under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, claiming that she felt her fetus was in danger from Borcela when she shot her.
Attorney William Norris, who filed the emergency petition last week, told WTVJ that “an unborn child is a person.”
“A person has constitutional rights and one of them is the right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law,” Norris said. “I am asserting the right of someone who is a person who has not been considered in the decision to incarcerate his mother.”
Norris’s petition claims that Miami Dade Corrections hasn’t provided “reasonable and necessary prenatal care” for Harrell.
The corrections department responded Monday saying that it would review the situation, given Norris’s complaints.
“Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation partners with Jackson Health System to provide healthcare to the inmates in our custody, and we are committed to ensuring all inmates receive professional, timely medical care and all appropriate treatment,” the statement reads. “We are conducting a full review of the health services offered and received to ensure that all pre-natal care being provided in our custody is appropriate.”
The department is expected to file a response next week.
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[Featured image: Yvette Borcela/GoFundMe. Inset: Natalia Harrell/Miami-Dade Corrections]
