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Inset: Olivia Munoz (Mathis Police Department). Background: The 900 block of South Marigold Street in Mathis, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas woman faces a life in prison after being convicted of the horrific murder of her infant daughter in a violent outburst.
Olivia Munoz, 22, admitted guilt last week to charges of murdering a child under 10 and intentionally inflicting severe bodily harm on 7-month-old Hazel Munoz, according to the San Patricio County District Clerk’s Office and District Attorney’s Office.
The tragic events unfolded on December 19, 2023.
At approximately 6:30 a.m., Munoz contacted authorities from her residence on South Marigold Street in Mathis, a small town about 35 miles from Corpus Christi. Officers from the Mathis Police Department arrived to find the infant unresponsive and not breathing.
Emergency medical personnel quickly arrived and attempted CPR, transporting the child to ER 24/7 Northwest in the Calallen area of Corpus Christi, located 22 miles away. Despite their efforts, Hazel was declared deceased shortly after reaching the hospital, as reported by sources from the police department and Corpus Christi’s NBC affiliate KRIS.
Mathis Police Chief Guillermo “Willie” Figueroa informed the station that the emergency call was made after Munoz discovered her daughter wasn’t breathing. Munoz alerted her mother to the situation, prompting the child’s grandmother to instruct another family member to call 911.
Fast-forward to just after the child’s death – that’s when hospital officials reached out to police to describe the child’s host of injuries.
Officers then questioned the defendant, who allegedly readily admitted to injuring her girl during three separate incidents – and never seeking medical attention for Hazel after the fact.
“At the time, Munoz was pregnant and the mother of another daughter, a year and five months old,” the police chief told KRIS. “The older child did not have injuries.”
On Dec. 20, Munoz was initially arrested on two counts of injury to a child. Figueroa said two of the three admitted injuries were charged.
Then, the child’s autopsy was performed – outlining the extent of the prolonged abuse Hazel suffered during her short life.
The child had several fractures in her arms, ribs, and skull.
In January 2024, the autopsy results were turned over to law enforcement. Hazel’s death was determined to be a homicide. Local police then upgraded Munoz’s charges to include murder.
The defendant, by then, was allegedly voluble about why she did what she did to the helpless little girl, according to the police chief.
“She admitted she had a lot of anger towards the 7-month-old baby due to problems she had with the baby’s father,” Figueroa told KRIS. “She told officers that her three children shared the same biological father.”
Then, the Texas Rangers stepped in.
Munoz was formally indicted on three charges in March 2024, according to court records obtained by Law&Crime. She was charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of injury to a child in the first degree in the Lone Star State’s 343rd District Court.
The legal process churned slowly. A psychiatric evaluation was called for, along with a motion for an insanity defense, records show. A sealed copy of those results was filed in late September.
In mid-October, the parties announced a plea decision.
On Oct. 24, in exchange for the state dropping one of the murder charges and taking the capital murder charge down to a lesser-included murder offense, Munoz pleaded guilty to the two remaining charges.
Under the contours of her plea deal, she will be sentenced to life in prison for both counts, records show.
The defendant’s formal sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled, San Patricio County officials told Law&Crime.
 
					 
							 
					 
					 
					 
					 
					 
					 
					 
					 
					 
					 
					 
						 
						 
						