Lakeland, Florida — Cassidy Goodson, the 14-year-old accused of choking her newborn to death, reenacted the murder while detectives recorded the confession.
Goodson has been charged with capital murder and aggravated child abuse. She killed her infant son after hiding her pregnancy from family and friends.
WFTS-TV, a local ABC station, reported that detectives had Goodson go step-by-step through the murder using a Santa Claus doll found at her home.
Goodson calmly recalls the morning in September when she gave birth to her son.
“Its eyes weren’t open but I felt to see if it was breathing or not…and it was. So I put my hands round its throat to make it stop breathing,” she said.
Goodson said she choked the infant for about “one minute.”
When asked how hard she squeezed the baby’s throat, she replied, “Enough for it to stop breathing.”
Goodson said she wore baggy clothes throughout her pregnancy and cheated on two pregnancy tests when her mother forced her to take them.
“I thought she was just getting fat and gaining weight, honestly,” Teresa Goodson said.
Prosecutors are saying the fact that Goodson confessed that she didn’t want to disappoint her parents was why she killed the baby.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said, “Her son was still connected to her by the umbilical cord when she choked him to death. I just can’t get over that.”
Teresa Goodson found the lifeless body of her grandson after noticing a foul odor coming from her daughter’s room three days after the murder.
“Honestly, if I would have known this would never have happened,” she said.
Cassidy Goodson is being charged as an adult and could face life in prison if convicted. It is unlikely given her age.
