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Baby dies weeks after being cut from his mother’s womb

Posted at 8:25 AM, Jun 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-14 08:25:34-04

(CNN) -- A baby cut from his mother's womb during a brutal attack in April has died, a family spokeswoman said.

Yovanny Jadiel Lopez had been in intensive care since his mother, Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, was killed in Chicago.

The infant died Friday due to a severe brain injury, Julie Contreras said.

Ochoa-Lopez was lured to a woman's home by an offer of free baby clothes, police say. She was then strangled and her unborn baby cut from her. Her body was found weeks later in a garbage can in the backyard of a home.

Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing.

In a photo released last month by the family, the baby is seen being held by his father, Yovany Lopez. The picture, taken by a student pastor, shows the baby attached to various tubes and apparently asleep in his father's arms.

Around the time the photo was taken, the baby opened his eyes.

"We were just praying and praying and he opened his eyes, and his dad said, 'Oh my God, he opened his eyes!'" Cecilia Garcia, a student pastor who was assisting the family, told CNN at the time.