TIPTON, Ind., Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Prosecutors say a Tipton, Ind., woman has been sentenced to two years in prison for abandoning her 3-year-old son at a Wal-Mart last June.
Julia Ornelas, 39, who was sentenced Monday, said she was depressed and on medications when a witch doctor in Mexico told her to leave her son, Julian, said Maj. Jeff Ward of the Frankfort, Ind., Police Department.
Prosecutors argued Ornelas saw Julian as a burden because of a medical condition that has left his head too small for his body, The Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday.
Ornelas last month pleaded guilty to abandoning Julian, who remains in the care of the state Department of Child Services.
"I was desperate at the time. It got to the point where I felt I could not take care of him," Ornelas said Monday at her sentencing, using a Spanish language translator.
