A Thousand Oaks woman was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Friday for concocting a bizarre plot to kidnap babies that included dumping the body of a 3-week-old girl from Long Beach in a trash bin in 2015, according to authorities.
Moments before a judge handed down the sentence in a Long Beach courtroom, Giseleangelique Rene D’Milian pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the death and kidnapping of baby Eliza De La Cruz, prosecutors said.
Authorities alleged D’Milian and a co-conspirator, Anthony Ray McCall, plotted to kidnap Eliza and another baby as part of a scam meant to convince D’Milian’s boyfriend, a married man, that she’d given birth to twins while he was out of the country.
D’Milian was never pregnant, according to prosecutors. But she went to great lengths to cover her lie, even creating a fake charitable organization as a ploy to find mothers with infants to steal, authorities said.
The plot became known as the Baby Eliza case.
At a court hearing in 2016, Eliza’s mother, Jackie Honorato, testified that an armed man and a woman burst into her North Long Beach home on Jan. 3, 2015, and stole the newborn at gunpoint.
“So he literally took your baby out of your arms?” Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes asked at the time.
“Yes,” Honorato replied, sometimes breaking into tears as she testified.
During the abduction, the gunman shot Honorato along with Eliza’s father and uncle, but they survived with serious injuries, according to authorities.
A day later, authorities found Eliza’s body in an Imperial Beach Dumpster. Eliza likely died of asphyxiation before being placed in plastic bag and thrown away, according to testimony from a medical examiner.
The next month, D’Milian, McCall and another man, Todd Boudreaux, tried to kidnap another infant at an El Segundo hotel, according to authorities.
They beat the baby’s mother with a baseball bat but weren’t able to get away with the 4-month-old child, police said.
Boudreaux, who is from Fontana, was facing attempted murder and attempted kidnapping charges related to the El Segundo attack, but he later pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact and agreed to testify against his co-defendants.
McCall, a 32-year-old from Oceanside, could still face trial in the case. He’s pleaded not guilty to four counts of attempted murder and one count each of kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and murder.
D’Milian originally faced the same charges, but some of them were dropped as part of a plea agreement. She was 47 at the time of the crime.
Police arrested all three defendants in March 2015. McCall remains behind bars on $5 million bail.
At the court hearing in 2016, Honorato said she was walking home with her baby when D’Milian pulled up in an SUV, asked how old the child was and offered them a ride.
Honorato said she had never seen D’Milian before, and she declined the ride, but hours later, Honorato was watching TV with Eliza’s father at their home in the 100 block of W. 51st Street when they heard a commotion downstairs.
A man with a handgun came upstairs and demanded Honorato hand over Eliza, but she refused, according to her testimony.
“I said ‘please,’ and he shot me,” Honorato said from the witness stand.
After the gunman walked back downstairs with her child, Honorato heard a female voice, she said.
It said, “I’m your new mommy,” according to Honorato.
