Warning: Details may be disturbing for some readers.
An attorney representing the father of an infant child who was cut from his mother's womb in Chicago said the baby's birth certificate lists his mother's alleged murderers as the parents.
"The baby does not have a social security number, which we will obtain eventually, because the original birth certificate has a different name and the names of the parents as the murderers, including Pitor Bobak as the father, as we understand," Attorney Frank Avila said Friday.
The statement was made after Avila called for new charges against the trio accused in the case following the young baby's death.
"The baby did not just die - the baby was murdered," Avila said Friday.
The infant boy whose mother, 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa, was strangled to death just before he was cut from her womb with a butcher knife died Friday at a hospital where he had been in grave condition since the April attack, a family spokeswoman said.
"It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of baby Yovanny Jadiel Lopez," family spokeswoman Julie Contreras said in a statement. "He passed away this morning, Friday, June 14, 2019 from his severe brain injury."
"Please keep his family in your thoughts & prayers as they go through this difficult time," her statement continued, adding that the funeral would be a private event for family only.
Avila said during a news conference Friday that the family hopes to bury the baby with his mother.
"I ask State's Attorney Kim Foxx and her staff to please indict these vicious evil murderers for killing this beautiful baby," Avila said.
Yovanny had been hospitalized and on life support for weeks after authorities say he was cut from Marlen Ochoa's womb on April 23, the day she went missing and prosecutors alleged she was brutally murdered.
Prosecutors say 46-year-old Clarisa Figueroa claimed she had given birth to the baby when she took him to the hospital. Figuero and her 24-year-old daughter, Desiree Figueroa, have been charged with murder in Ochoa's death. Clarisa Figueroa's boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, has been charged with concealing a homicide.
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Friday that he expects both women will now also be charged with murder in the baby's death.
"We had that glimmer of hope he we would survive but we know it was an act of violence the way he was born and what brings me solace is he is now with mom," said family pastor Emma Lozano. "What we have to do now is make sure we demand justice for these atrocious acts and violence not only for his mom but for Yovanny."
Authorities contend that not long after Clarisa Figueroa's adult son died of natural causes, she told her family she was pregnant. They say she plotted for months to acquire a newborn, and that she posted an ultrasound and photos of a room decorated for a baby on her Facebook page. In March, she and Ochoa connected on a Facebook page for pregnant women.
Prosecutors alleged the mother-daughter duo lured Ochoa to their home, where they offered to give her clothes and other items for her unborn child. As Desiree Figueroa was showing Ochoa a photo album of her late brother to distract her, Clarisa Figueroa sneaked up behind her and strangled her with a cord before her baby was cut from her womb.
Later that day, Clarisa Figueroa called 911 claiming that her newborn baby was not breathing. When first responders arrived, the child was blue. They tried to resuscitate the infant and took him to Christ Medical Center, where he remained until his death.
The Illinois Department of Public Health opened an investigation last month on Christ Medical Center after the Cook County sheriff's office questioned whether the hospital violated state law by not immediately reporting that a woman who claimed to be the mother of a newborn showed no signs of giving birth.
Prosecutors said that Clarisa Figueroa was examined in a birthing center at the hospital and "showed no signs consistent with a woman who had just delivered a baby." A technician at the hospital reported cleaning blood from her arms, face and hands, but according to prosecutors, it was unclear if anyone verified that she had actually given birth.
Police found Ochoa's body last month outside Clarisa Figueroa's Chicago home.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
