Flores v. State

OPINION

By the Court, Maupin, J.:

The trial jury below found appellant Martha Flores (Flores) guilty of first-degree murder by child abuse. The victim was her five-year-old stepdaughter, Zoraida Flores. Postmortem findings confirmed that the child had been physically abused, that her death was caused by blunt-force trauma to the head, and that Flores was present during the events surrounding the child’s demise. Flores, however, denied any wrongdoing in connection with the child’s death. The only direct proof in support of the State’s theory of murder by child abuse came in the form of surrogate…