WOMAN GETS FIVE YEARS FOR SLASHING BABY Dec. 18, 2007 A Roslindale woman was sentenced to a term of four to five years in state prison today after pleading guilty to slashing a three-month old infant with an eyebrow razor, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced. Prosecutors assigned to Conley’s Child Abuse Unit recommended that MABEL ROJAS, 20 (D.O.B. 5/19/87), serve eight to 10 years for the July 10 attack, which left the baby with deep lacerations to her shoulder and throat. Prosecutors also recommended that she serve an additional 43 days at the Suffolk County House of Correction for filing the false police report that led to another man being wrongly accused of the crime. That man, Andrew Vaughn, spent 43 days behind bars before evidence developed in the Suffolk County Grand Jury led to his exoneration. At today’s change of plea hearing, Judge Carol S. Ball declined to adopt prosecutors’ recommendations, instead sentencing Rojas to four to five years in prison to be followed by 10 years of probation. Had the case proceeded to trial, prosecutors would have introduced evidence and testimony showing that Rojas was one of several people gathered in a Maxwell Street residence on the night of July 9 and early morning of July 10. At about 1:00, evidence would have shown, Rojas went into the room in which the baby was sleeping and slashed at it with an eyebrow razor. It was after this incident that Vaughn, who went into the room to change his clothes, observed the baby crying and bleeding from her neck. Vaughn took her out of the room and handed her to her mother. One of the guests called 911. When police officers arrived, all of the guests, including Rojas, implicated Vaughn, and officers placed him under arrest. He was held in custody until an August 22 Suffolk Superior Court hearing when the exhaustive investigation led by Suffolk prosecutors and Boston Police uncovered evidence that consistently pointed away from Vaughn and toward Rojas. “Prosecutors followed the facts, even when they led away from the initial suspect,” Conley said. “Those facts, developed in the Grand Jury, freed an innocent man and built a case so strong that this defendant pleaded guilty to avoid a trial.” Return to the Press Releases page.