SAN DIEGO — Three-month-old Jasmine Hunsicker is buried at Miramar National Cemetery. Her mother, Ashley Alejandra Zuniga, pleaded guilty last week to her death.
Zuniga was set to be sentenced next week for one felony count of child abuse but Jasmine’s grandmother says the judge in the case, Judge Cynthia Davis, should wait until the autopsy report to decide Ashley’s fate.
“I believe those findings will show the manner of death is homicide. The forensics are Jasmine's voice told through her body of the suffering she endured until she died. You've got justice on this side of the scale and compassion on the other. They've got to weigh each other out. Right now there's no justice because we can't hear Jasmine's voice. There’s only compassion for the mom," said Teri Hunsicker, Jasmine’s grandmother.
Jasmine lived in Florida with her mom, Ashley, and her dad, David, where he was stationed. Both parents grew up in San Diego.
Hunsicker says that last summer Ashley left David, and without telling him, drove from Florida to California with their newborn baby.
“She went to the Santa Monica Pier because she was putting things on her Instagram account," Hunsicker said.
She says her son called Ashley asking to Facetime and see Jasmine but Ashley refused.
“There was one day, and I want to say it was day 11 or 12 of the 15-day trip, that she took, that culminated in Jasmine's death, that he heard his daughter cry for the first time. And what he told me- mom, I heard her cry and it didn't sound right. He said I told her to take her to the doctors. And I said- well did she? And he said she said there’s nothing wrong with my baby. And then the next day he heard the baby cry again and he said mom, this time it was more frail and more frantic, and I told her you need to take the baby to the hospital, something’s really wrong! And she told him- don't you dare tell me what to do with my baby," Hunsicker said.
Fifteen days after she left Florida, Ashley walked into UC San Diego’s Hillcrest Emergency Room with a lifeless Jasmine.
The San Diego Police Department report describes what the ER doctor told the detective on scene.
The report reads, “Nurses brought the victim in under Code Pink for not breathing and no heartbeat. The victim was dark gray and stiff.” The report goes on to say, “The medical doctor who I had been told pronounced the time of death to the victim, came into the room, quickly checked the body, and made comments about the temporal fading along the head along with the presence of the ribs and spine showing on the victim's body leading her to say- she believed the infant was emaciated.”
Hunsicker says she got Jasmine’s baby checkups from Florida. She says Jasmine weighed almost 10 pounds when Ashley left Florida and weighed seven pounds by the time she got to UCSD’s Emergency Room two weeks later.
She says Ashley admits she could only get the baby to take two ounces of formula 2-3 times a day but for a baby Jasmine’s age, she should be drinking 17 ounces of formula a day.
“It says in the report that the mother did not seek medical care. It said the night before she died the baby refused to take a bottle. In fact, Ashley said the baby was too weak to suck. And the report says- she did not seek medical care," Hunsicker said.
Hunsicker says Ashley did not pull up to the emergency drop-off entrance. Instead, she parked in the hospital’s parking lot and took the time to lock her club on her car so the car wouldn't be stolen with her belongings in it while she took Jasmine’s body inside.
Ashley was arrested that same night and according to SDPD, they started a murder investigation. She’s been in Las Colinas women’s prison since.
On May 24, the district attorney filed a felony child abuse charge and Ashley pleaded guilty, even though an autopsy has yet to be done on Jasmine’s body.
“The pathologist doing the autopsy said to me- they can't sentence her without my autopsy. I am her voice!,” Hunsicker said.
Hunsicker believes Ashley was struggling with her mental health but says it doesn’t excuse what she did. She believes had Ashley reached out for help, Jasmine would be alive. She hopes Judge Cynthia Davis will wait for autopsy results before deciding Ashley’s fate.
“There were many times she could have stopped this whole circus but she chose not to,” Hunsicker said.
The San Diego County District attorney’s office told CBS 8 that Ashley’s sentencing is now delayed until July 19.