Around 3:00 p.m. or an hour later, the abortion doctor arrived at the clinic and sedated Williams. The doctor’s medical records did not indicate that Williams had delivered a live baby who was killed at the clinic.
Anonymous callers notified police at least three times about the live birth and murder. A search warrant executed by police on July 22, 2006 found medical records but could not find the baby’s remains.
Another anonymous caller six days later told police that the baby’s body had been hidden on the roof, though responding police did not find the baby’s body there.
Still another anonymous tip led police to acquire a search warrant and find the decomposing body of the baby in a cardboard box in a closet at the clinic. DNA confirmed the baby was Williams’.
A Miami-Dade County medical examiner performed an autopsy which reportedly showed that the baby’s lungs had been filled with air before she was killed, proving she was born alive.
The examiner blamed the death on “extreme prematurity,” which the Thomas More Society claimed ignored eyewitness testimony reporting that the baby was killed.
The Thomas More Society says it took interest in the case when the Miami Herald quoted a law professor who argued that if the baby wasn’t “viable” the case could not be considered homicide.”
Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, called that view “dead wrong.”
“A disabled or dying patient may not be 'viable' in the sense of being able to live very long or without help, but if you kill them, it's murder. This was a case of infanticide, and we're not going to let it go ignored or unpunished.”
The Thomas More Society says it tried to secure a second autopsy but prosecutors would not release the baby’s body or take action to begin criminal proceedings.
An investigator and expert pathologist were retained by the Society. The expert examined the autopsy slides and other facts of the case, concluding that the acts and omissions of the abortionist and the clinic staff were causative factors in Shanice’s death.
(Story continues below)
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"This case will trumpet to the world that abortion clinics are places of barbarism where mothers as well as their babies are at serious risk," Brejcha said. "Moreover, this case should put some sharp teeth into the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. As we struggle to end the scourge of legal abortion in this country, we must hold the line against infanticide!"
The lawsuit also targets thirteen defendants including Gonzalez, abortionist Dr. Renelique and their conglomerate of four South Florida abortion clinics. They are being sued for unlicensed and unauthorized medical practice, botched abortions, evasive tactics, falsifying medical records and the killing, hiding and disposing of the baby.