Inset: Catherine Innes (Harris County Jail). Background: Police in Houston, Texas, examine the scene after Innes allegedly discarded her newborn (KTRK).
A Texas mother is behind bars nearly a year after she gave birth to a baby boy in a shower and dumped him in the trash, according to authorities.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced her arrest on Facebook Monday evening. Catherine Nicole Innes, age 22, faces charges of tampering with evidence, specifically related to a human corpse. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, deputies were called to the 13000 block of Fountain Crest Court in Houston on Aug. 14, 2024, after sanitation workers discovered the boy’s decomposing remains in the trash compactor.
As deputies conducted their investigation at the scene, Innes approached them and admitted she was the child’s mother. She explained that three days prior, she had been experiencing intense stomach cramps and “entered the shower and ran cold water on herself to alleviate the pain.” As per the affidavit, Innes “gave birth while inside the shower.”
The boy, who was identified in the affidavit as Jesus Martinez, was alive at birth and “began to make some noise,” the complaint said. Innes claimed she then passed out in the shower, cops wrote. When she woke up, she said the boy was not breathing.
She said she “became frightened” and placed the boy inside a trash bag along with the night gown she was wearing and the towels she used to clean up the blood in the shower, according to the complaint. Innes then put the boy and the other items into a trash bin in the back of the home. Three days later, the garbage was picked up as scheduled.
Innes later told investigators that she lives with her boyfriend and 3-year-old son. She said while she and her boyfriend wanted to have more kids “she did not believe it was the right time to have another child,” the affidavit stated.
A medical examiner conducted an autopsy which concluded both the cause and manner of death was “undetermined.” The ME said she “could not find a biological reason to explain the child’s death as there were no observable deformities or medical issues for the baby.” He could have died by being intentionally drowned or suffocated or from being placed in the trash bag and dying from the summer heat, according to the affidavit.
Had the baby received medical attention after birth, the medical examiner noted, he could have survived.
Deputies arrested Innes and took her to the Harris County Jail where she remains on a $50,000 bond. Her next court date is scheduled for Wednesday. It was not immediately clear why it took nearly a year to file charges in the case.
