Baby was alive when Reno mother set her on fire

Medical tests show a terminally ill infant had still been alive when her mother placed her in a plastic bag, doused it with gasoline, and then set the bag on fire, according to Thursday testimony in Washoe District Court that ended with the woman’s release from jail.While the autopsy of the baby, named Brandy, has not yet been completed, Sparks police Detective Steve Fiore testified that a pathologist from the county’s medical examiner’s office reported a recent blood test concluded the 2-month-old had inhaled smoke — meaning she was alive when Suceli Ardon burned her on March 6 in a Sparks field.
Deputy District Attorney Luke Prengaman said during Thursday’s bail reduction hearing that he will likely be filing homicide charges against Ardon, a 26-year-old mother to two other children who live locally with their father. But until the autopsy report has been completed, his hands are tied.
Ardon is currently charged with third-degree arson for scorching a small area of the Sparks field near Earmark Drive and Silver Coyote Court where police can’t identify its owner, and of destroying evidence related to her ridding of the gas can she used and her baby’s morphine medication. Both are punishable by probation. She had been in jail without bail until Thursday’s hearing.
Judge Steven Kosach said he had to balance a bail amount for her current offenses, which normally carries a bail of $1,500, with the “invisible gorilla in the room,” meaning the likely murder charges that have not yet been filed. Kosach ordered she be released on her own recognizance Thursday, and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet among other conditions such as surrendering her passport and driver’s license and maintaining a job.
Prengaman argued that Ardon is a flight risk because she is a native of Guatemala and knows she will be facing homicide charges.
“I trust you,” Kosach told Ardon. “If you let me down, I will hunt you down myself.”
According to court testimony, Ardon and her boyfriend, Luis Martinez, also the baby’s father, had an argument that caused Martinez to stay with his relatives for a matter of days. When he returned, the baby was gone. She first claimed hospice workers took the baby, and later said told him she had really sent the baby to her family in Guatemala.