Background: Clay County District Court in Moorehead, Minn. (Google Maps). Inset (left): Jose Zamora (Korsmo Funeral and Cremation Service). Inset (right): Valerie Zamora (Cass County Sheriff's Office).
An attorney representing a Minnesota woman who allegedly stopped at a Walmart to pick up Pedialyte for her toddler while he was on the verge of death wants her interviews with police thrown out.
Valerie Zamora, 33, was arrested in May after an investigation into the death of her 20-month-old son Jose led authorities to believe that she was responsible. As Law&Crime previously reported, Zamora was with her partner and daughter when the family brought Jose to a local hospital on May 15. But before they got to the hospital, they made a stop at a Walmart in Dilworth, a city some 230 miles northwest of Minneapolis near the North Dakota border, to pick up Pedialyte.
While Zamora was inside the store, Jose began vomiting blood as he was held by her daughter, who told police she thought the little boy was going to die.
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Zamora's partner left Jose in the arms of the little girl to run inside the store to get Zamora. The family then "sped" to the hospital, where Jose died at 11:05 p.m. An autopsy determined that he died of blunt force injuries due to an assault, listing the manner of death as homicide. Jose had broken ribs and bruises, which Zamora allegedly told police were there because the little boy bruised easily.
In Clay County District Court on Monday, Zamora's defense attorney, Michael Minard, told Judge Jade Rosenfeldt that his client was interviewed by police three times after Jose passed away, twice at the hospital and once at the police station. According to courtroom reporting by local news site The Forum, Zamora voluntarily spoke to police all three times and requested an attorney during the third interview. At that point, Moorhead Police Detective Katie Schultz testified, the conversations with Zamora ended.
Because Zamora was not taken into custody, she was not read her Miranda rights at the start of those three interviews. Schultz told the court that those three interviews were conducted in order to gather information about Jose's "suspicious death." At the time, Schultz said, Zamora was not under arrest and was told she could stop the interview at any time.
Minard told the court that the content of those three recorded interviews should be excluded from trial since Zamora was not read her rights.
Among the statements Zamora allegedly made during her voluntary interviews with police was how she hesitated to bring Jose to the hospital the day before his death because she feared that social services would "take her child away." Police wrote in court documents that Zamora's story about the days leading up to Jose's death changed, including the nature of his illness. According to police, Zamora first stated that Jose was vomiting, but it was "normal." She later stated that he vomited a black or dark substance.
Law&Crime previously reported that the day of Jose's death, witnesses told police that they had urged Zamora to take Jose to the hospital. She allegedly gave him Tylenol and Gatorade and ran errands instead. Later that evening, between 4:30 and 5 p.m., Jose's condition worsened. Zamora told one of her children that she would take him to the hospital when her partner arrived home.
Police said the family finally took Jose to the hospital late that night, but not before surveillance cameras at Walmart caught Zamora entering the store at 10:12 p.m., minutes before her son began vomiting blood.
Zamora remains in custody at Clay County Jail after she was extradited from Cass County following her arrest. She is charged with second-degree murder.
