Baby Abduction
RIVERSIDE (CNS) – A 25-year-old woman who posed as a nurse and snatched a newborn from her mother at Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley was sentenced Tuesday to three years’ felony probation and ordered to continue with psychiatric treatment.
Jesenea Miron of Moreno Valley pleaded guilty in July to kidnapping and a sentence-enhancing allegation of intent to deprive a parent of their child under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for her admissions, prosecutors dropped three related counts against Miron.
Superior Court Judge Emma Smith certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense. The judge additionally imposed a yearlong jail term, but that was expected to be waived based on the defendant’s ongoing participation in the court’s mental health diversion program.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Fransik, on the morning of July 15, 2022, Miron accessed the medical center campus on Cactus Avenue and identified herself as a newly hired nurse, enabling her to enter the maternity ward.
Fransik said while on the ward, Miron entered a room occupied by a woman and her infant daughter, identified in court documents only by the initials “Z.B.” The defendant introduced herself as a nurse.
“While inside the patient’s room, she attempted to take the newborn,” he said. “The suspect was confronted by hospital staff, who then notified security.”
Court documents indicated that the baby was briefly in the defendant’s possession but was not removed from the hospital and was not harmed, nor was the mother, whose identity was not released.
Miron fled before deputies assigned to the medical center could apprehend her. However, detectives followed up and were able to procure evidence confirming the defendant’s identity, according to Fransik.
A search warrant was served at her residence on Weber Avenue a couple of days later, resulting in “items of evidentiary value” being seized, the sergeant said.
She was taken into custody without incident.
In the wake of Miron’s arrest, medical center CEO Jennifer Cruikshank said that security protocols were “reviewed and reinforced, and we have additional sheriff’s deputies on campus.”
She credited her “vigilant staff” with preventing Miron from escaping the hospital with the infant.
The defendant had no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.
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