Bianca R. Desouza (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office)
A Florida woman faces a lengthy prison sentence following the tragic home birth and subsequent death of her newborn son.
Bianca R. Desouza, 23, admitted guilt on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect resulting in significant harm. This plea was recorded on Thursday, as per Palm Beach County court documents accessed by Law & Crime.
The distressing event took place on May 2, 2022.
At 4:56 p.m., emergency responders from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Rescue were dispatched to a home in an unincorporated area of West Boca Raton, approximately 45 miles north of Miami. They were called to the scene for reports of an unresponsive newborn.
The emergency call was made by the infant’s grandmother, who recounted discovering the baby lifeless upon entering her daughter’s room that afternoon.
At that time, Desouza was just 19 years old.
The child was rushed to West Boca Medical Center, but for naught. The little boy was declared dead shortly after arriving.
The defendant told investigators she gave birth to the child in her bed and held him until he stopped crying, then she left him on the bed and took a shower without calling anyone, Law&Crime previously reported. After showering, she went to lie down in her mother’s bed.
“She said the birth happened quickly, and [she] did not know [he] was dead until her mom came in,” a probable cause affidavit reads.
As it turned out, Desouza was scheduled to have the child’s birth induced the following day; she and her husband had been talking about giving the baby up for adoption, the document explains.
After the home birth and death, Desouza was checked into the Fort Lauderdale Behavioral Health Center, where she told staff she had a history of self-harm and severe depression, according to the charging document. The defendant also said she stopped taking her prescribed Lexapro two weeks before the incident, authorities said.
Desouza’s mother, for her part, told investigators her daughter lived with psychosis and bipolar disorder. She went on to say she thought her daughter “did something to the baby” and “might have had some sort of psychotic break.” She added that Desouza was extremely stressed about not finding a suitable home for the baby to be adopted.
The defendant was released from the psychiatric hospital on May 11, 2022, and subsequently opened up to investigators.
Desouza told detectives she was “really confused” about suddenly going into labor but that it “didn’t hurt” to give birth. She said after the baby was born, she “just sat there” and watched him cry, explaining that she “didn’t know what to do,” so she “just looked at him.”
“I just didn’t do anything and I’m so mad,” the defendant went on. “It was like my body stopped working.”
Asked what she wished she would have done differently, Desouza said: “I would have called for help.”
“I asked how long he cried for, she said, not long,” the affidavit goes on. “I asked what made him stop crying and she recalled, she fell asleep and when she woke up he wasn’t crying. She thought he was sleeping. According to [Desouza], he was lying on his left side. She didn’t put him on his side because she was afraid to touch him.”
When asked what she thought happened, Desouza said she “didn’t know but wants to,” the affidavit continued. “I asked if she did something to him and she said, ‘No, I would never hurt him.’”
The Palm Beach County medical examiner determined the child’s manner of death to be a homicide and the cause of death to be asphyxia, with the cause of injury including “chest compression.”
The pathologist noted the child was born through the leg hole of boxer shorts that Desouza kept on, which likely pressed his face against her thigh.
“[Desouza] did not attempt to move herself, remove clothing, reposition the baby, pick up, comfort, seek medical attention, or otherwise care for the child,” the charging document reads. “[She] did not attempt to create an environment where the neonate could breathe without restriction during the birth process and failed to ensure his wellbeing after being born.”
In December 2023, well over a year after the incident, the defendant was arrested and charged by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Under the terms of her plea agreement, Desouza faces between just shy of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison, according to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime.
The defendant is currently slated to be sentenced on Jan. 29, 2026.
