HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — A district judge has denied a request to move the trial of a 34-year-old Hastings woman accused of suffocating a toddler with a baby wipe.
Mark Porto of Grand Island, an attorney for Azudany Serrano-Contreras, had asked for the change in venue, arguing that pretrial publicity had made it impossible for his client to get a fair trial in Adams County. That motion was denied Thursday.
Serrano-Contreras faces trial in January on a charge of committing intentional child abuse causing death. If convicted, she faces 20 years to life.
Prosecutors say Serrano-Contreras was baby-sitting 19-month-old Aliyana Peterson on March 12 when she stuffed a baby wipe down the girl’s throat. Serrano-Contreras has said the child put the wipe in her own mouth.