Inset: Olivia Munoz (Mathis Police Department). Background: The 900 block of South Marigold Street in Mathis, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas woman will likely spend the rest of her life behind bars for brutally killing her infant daughter in a fit of rage.
Last week, Olivia Munoz, 22, pleaded guilty to one count each of murder of a person under 10 years of age and injury to a child with intent to cause significant bodily injury in the death of 7-month-old Hazel Munoz, according to the San Patricio County District Clerk's Office and the San Patricio County District Attorney's Office.
The underlying incidents came to a head on Dec. 19, 2023.
Around 6:30 a.m., police were called by the defendant to her house on South Marigold Street in Mathis – a small town located roughly 35 miles northwest of Corpus Christi. Responding officers with the Mathis Police Department found the child unresponsive and not breathing.
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In short order, EMS personnel arrived and did their best to revive the little girl with CPR before rushing her to ER 24/7 Northwest in the Calallen neighborhood of Corpus Christi – a hospital located some 22 miles southeast. But it was too late and ultimately for naught; Hazel was pronounced dead shortly after arriving, according to police department sources cited by Corpus Christi-based NBC affiliate KRIS.
Mathis Police Chief Guillermo "Willie" Figueroa told the TV station that someone in the house called 911 after Munoz woke up to find her daughter unresponsive. The police chief went on to explain that Munoz told her own mother her child was not breathing, prompting the baby girl's grandmother to have another family member dial 911.
Fast-forward to just after the child's death – that's when hospital officials reached out to police to describe the child's host of injuries.
Officers then questioned the defendant, who allegedly readily admitted to injuring her girl during three separate incidents – and never seeking medical attention for Hazel after the fact.
"At the time, Munoz was pregnant and the mother of another daughter, a year and five months old," the police chief told KRIS. "The older child did not have injuries."
On Dec. 20, Munoz was initially arrested on two counts of injury to a child. Figueroa said two of the three admitted injuries were charged.
Then, the child's autopsy was performed – outlining the extent of the prolonged abuse Hazel suffered during her short life.
The child had several fractures in her arms, ribs, and skull.
In January 2024, the autopsy results were turned over to law enforcement. Hazel's death was determined to be a homicide. Local police then upgraded Munoz's charges to include murder.
The defendant, by then, was allegedly voluble about why she did what she did to the helpless little girl, according to the police chief.
"She admitted she had a lot of anger towards the 7-month-old baby due to problems she had with the baby's father," Figueroa told KRIS. "She told officers that her three children shared the same biological father."
Then, the Texas Rangers stepped in.
Munoz was formally indicted on three charges in March 2024, according to court records obtained by Law&Crime. She was charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of injury to a child in the first degree in the Lone Star State's 343rd District Court.
The legal process churned slowly. A psychiatric evaluation was called for, along with a motion for an insanity defense, records show. A sealed copy of those results was filed in late September.
In mid-October, the parties announced a plea decision.
On Oct. 24, in exchange for the state dropping one of the murder charges and taking the capital murder charge down to a lesser-included murder offense, Munoz pleaded guilty to the two remaining charges.
Under the contours of her plea deal, she will be sentenced to life in prison for both counts, records show.
The defendant's formal sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled, San Patricio County officials told Law&Crime.
