Woman Torture'S And Kills Her 3 Year Old Son

I'm glad to see another piece of trash cleaned up off the streets for good. The garbage I'm talking about is Ana Maria Cardona. She was sentenced to death for the abuse and murder of her 3 year old son Lazaro Figueroa.

On November 2, 1990 the unidentified body of a male child was discovered in the Miami Beach area. He was a severely beaten child abandoned by Cardona.

Cardona's boyfriend was a rich drug dealer who fathered her 2 children, the youngest being Lazaro. When Cardona's boyfriend was murdered, she inherited a $100,000 estate which she squandered in a matter of months.

With no money and little hope, Ana left her kids to family and friends. Eventually social services took her children. Unfortunately the kids were returned to Ana and her lover Olivia Gonzalez-Mendoza. The lesbian couple supported their "family" by shoplifting while keeping their drug habit their main priority.

Ana Maria Cardona began abusing little Lazaro. She blamed the child for all that went wrong with her life and having to live in poverty. The child was frequently tied to the bed, locked in a closet, or left in a bathtub with freezing water, and sometimes hot water.

When Lazaro was found his body was covered with bruises and bedsores. He weighed only 18 pounds which was obvious to investigators that he was starved and malnourished.

On October 30, 1990 Ana Maria Cardona split Lazaro's head open with a baseball bat. Because Lazaro would not stop screaming she continued to beat him to death. Cardona and her lover Olivia dumped the body of Lazaro in a Miami beach neighborhood. These two murderous cowards ran to Orlando and were later caught in St.Cloud.

It was later determined that Lazaro suffered an unimaginable torture at the hands of his mom and her lover. He suffered from brain damage, untreated meningitis, anemia, malnutrition, spinal cord damage, and of course extreme neglect.

<strong>[this is a real time transcript, closed captioning during oral arguments of the proceedings]</strong>

"MS. CARDONA'S DEFENSE WAS THAT OLIVIA GONZALEZ WAS MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INJURIES OF THE CHILD AND INFLICTED THE BLOW WITH THE BASEBALL BAT WHICH RESULTED IN THE DEATH OF THE CHILD"

During an 18 month time period that Lazaro was returned to Cardona she began a torture campaign of beating, choking, starving, and emotionally abusing Lazaro. To avoid changing Lazaro's diaper for as long as possible, Cardona would wrap duct tape around the child's diaper to hold in the excrement.

Olivia Gonzalez-Mendoza was convicted of Aggravated Child Abuse and Second Degree Murder.  Gonzalez-Mendoza was sentenced to 15 years and 40 years, respectively, for her part in the murder of Lazaro Figueroa. 

Both continue to appeal the courts decision. It is in my prayers that neither of these two pieces of trash see the light of day.

Of course, there were many inconsistencies in Ana Cardona's account of what really happened. Either way she is where she belongs waiting to face God for her terrible cruelty.

Lazaro would have been in his early twenties. Nothing bad ever lasts forever, and the pain and suffering is no more. For Lazaro is in God's hands now, may he Rest In Peace and the memory of him never forgotten.

Your thoughts are welcome