MAR 11, 2022
‘There was a kidnapped baby inside this house’: Law enforcement defend response during Fieramusca hearing | KXAN Austin
A judge will wait to rule on a motion to suppress evidence in the case of a woman accused of killing her best friend, Heidi Broussard, kidnapping Broussard’s newborn baby and pretending it was her own.
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The first witness from the state Friday morning was a trooper who told the state he was coordinating with the FBI early in the case and would later become the first member of law enforcement to make contact with the then-missing baby.
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Video shown by the defense from an FBI surveillance plane showed Fieramusca was still in the backyard when law enforcement arrived.
Lopez said shortly after arriving he hopped the fence to get access to the back of the house. He told the state he jumped the fence because Fieramusca requested she be allowed to go back inside to meet law enforcement in the front, instead of opening a rear gate for them, saying he was worried if she went back to the baby “she would kill it.”
“The reason I jumped over the fence was because there was a kidnapped baby inside this house,” he later told the defense when they cross-examined him.
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The next witness, and the witness that was left on the stand before the court broke for lunch, was Daron Parker, a Texas Ranger. Parker was one of the first to make contact with Fieramusca as law enforcement approached the Houston suburb home, he said.
He was also assigned to stand with Fieramusca between the time law enforcement made contact with her until roughly eight hours later, when someone from the Austin Police Department took over. Parker had an audio recording device on him which recorded that roughly eight-hour interaction, he testified.
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Closing arguments and a ruling will be made on April 28 at 9 a.m.