Mother extradited to Broward in baby death case, faces manslaughter charge

Samantha Angelina Feliz was extradited to Broward County and booked into Broward Main Jail on an aggravated manslaughter of a child charge, bringing the Baby Angelina case into the local court system. The 20-year-old also faces counts of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, failure to report a death to the medical examiner and reporting false information concerning a missing person.

The Broward filing matters because it shifts the case from a missing-child investigation into a criminal prosecution that now runs through county judges, jail records and courtroom deadlines. Prosecutors are accusing Feliz of more than the death itself: the charges also point to what investigators say happened after the child was not seen again.

The child at the center of the case, identified in multiple outlets as Baby Angelina, was listed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Persons Information Clearinghouse as last seen in Hollywood on Dec. 16, 2024, near 3000 Sheridan Street. A missing child alert was issued for the 7-month-old after relatives said they had not seen the baby in months, and the investigation began in July 2025 after a concerned relative called police.

Feliz was taken into custody in Richmond County, North Carolina, where deputies said she and her boyfriend, Alejandro Leon Jr., 21, were hiding on a relative’s property before U.S. Marshals Service personnel and local authorities arrested them. Both were later held at Broward Main Jail without bond, according to the Miami Herald and Local 10.

WFLA reported that police accused the couple of killing their baby through neglect and then claiming the child never existed. Local 10 reported that the parents allegedly called the baby a “hoax.” Those allegations now sit alongside the formal Broward charges as prosecutors prepare to lay out the timeline, the missing-child reporting gap and the evidence they say supports the case.

For Broward, the next legal steps will unfold in the county’s own court system, where the state can press the manslaughter case and the defense can challenge the evidence and the timeline surrounding the child’s disappearance, death and delayed reporting.