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For the second time in a month, a Warsaw woman is set to plead guilty to killing her newborn daughter.
Beatriz Cuautle, 29, was expected to enter a guilty plea April 9 for a charge of voluntary manslaughter. However, a language barrier forced her court-appointed attorneys, Rosie Meza DeNuttle of Elkhart and David Kolbe of Warsaw, to seek a continuance.
Kosciusko Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed granted the continuance, but also set the matter for trial in an attempt to keep the case moving through the court.
Cuautle has been held in the Kosciusko County Jail on a charge of murder in connection with the Oct. 21 death of her infant daughter shortly after Cuautle gave birth at her workplace.
The voluntary manslaughter charge, a Class B felony, is considered a lesser and included charge of murder.
Kolbe said in court earlier this month that the delay was necessary because the 46 questions in the litany of the plea were translated to Cuautle's native language of Spanish, but he is not sure if Cuautle is able to understand all of the issues associated with entering a guilty plea.
Cuautle allegedly gave birth Oct. 21 to the baby girl in a toilet of a bathroom at Kralis Brothers Foods Inc., Mentone, and then placed the infant in a trash can.
An autopsy of Cuautle's newborn daughter revealed the infant died from asphyxiation due to suffocation. Kosciusko County Coroner Larry Ladd ruled the death a homicide.
The manslaughter charge carries a possible prison term of six to 20 years.
