AUSTIN, Texas (TCD) — A 37-year-old woman was sentenced to 55 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to killing her close friend in order to steal her baby and pass off the child as her own.
Travis County court records show Magen Fieramusca pleaded guilty to murder Thursday, Feb. 2, and was subsequently sentenced to over five decades behind bars. Fieramusca also faced kidnapping and tampering with evidence charges, but those were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that Fieramusca “waived her right to appeal, meaning that her cases will not remain open for post-conviction litigation after sentencing.”
Fieramusca was indicted Jan. 28, 2020, for the Dec. 12, 2019, kidnapping and killing of her close friend Heidi Broussard by asphyxiation. Fieramusca also took Broussard’s daughter, Margo Carey.
According to KXAN-TV, Broussard died from ligature strangulation and her body was found in the trunk of Fieramusca’s car at a home near Houston. Police reportedly located Broussard’s daughter, who was about 3 weeks old at the time, inside the home and unharmed. Fieramusca was arrested about a week after killing Broussard.
The Austin American-Statesman reports Fieramusca told people she was pregnant, and she was due around the same time as Broussard. She reportedly lived with her ex-boyfriend, and she said she gave birth while he was away at the beach. The ex-boyfriend, however, told investigators he never saw Fieramusca’s bare stomach during her supposed pregnancy. Fieramusca reportedly told investigators she had the baby in The Woodlands, Texas.
When a law enforcement official showed Fieramusca’s ex a photo of Margo, he reportedly replied, “That’s the baby at my house.”
KXAN reports Judge Selena Alvarenga told Fieramusca at the sentencing, “It is difficult, if not impossible, to find justice for this horrendous crime. You have deprived an innocent child — an innocent baby — of the opportunity of growing up with her mother.”
Fieramusca and Broussard reportedly met at a church camp and had been friends for 10 years.
