A Miami-Dade County judge has decided not to set bond for a pregnant woman accused of killing another woman during an argument in an Uber last summer.
Judge Michelle Delancy denied the bond request for 24-year-old Natalia Harrell at a hearing Tuesday.
Harrell was arrested this past July on a second-degree murder charge but her case gained a lot of attention recently when an attorney petitioned an appeals court to have Harrell's unborn child released from jail, arguing the baby is being wrongfully detained and claiming the mother is not receiving adequate pre-natal care behind bars.
However, the judge had previously ruled those arguments could not be brought up during Tuesday's hearing.
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"The total disregard and the flight risk that we find, at least at this time, I do find that there are no conditions of release that would be reasonably sufficient to protect the community of the risk of physical harms to persons," Delancy said in denying to set a bond for Harrell.
The family of Gladys Borcela left the court house Tuesday afternoon breathing a sigh of relief after the judge issued that no-bond ruling.
Borcela, 28, was shot and killed by Harrell after the two got into an argument in the Uber, police said.
The shooting was captured on the Uber driver's surveillance camera, a key piece of evidence in the case.
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Harrell's defense requested Tuesday's hearing, hoping to convince the judge that Harrell, who is about 8 months pregnant, should be released from jail until her trial.
Her attorneys have argued Harrell was acting in self-defense, saying she was assaulted by Borcela and was in fear for her life and the life of her unborn child when she fired the fatal shot.
But the prosecutors fought that, calling the lead homicide detective on the case to walk the court through the critical video inside the Uber.
Prosecutors argued that Harrell had pulled out a gun and had it in between her legs even before they said Borcela made any sort of movement towards Harrell.
Defense attorneys have said in court records that they'll seek to have the case dismissed under Florida's so-called "Stand Your Ground" law.
As for the arguments about the prenatal care and the unborn child, there's a hearing about that on Friday.
Attorneys for the unborn baby claim the Miami-Dade Corrections Department didn't bring Harrell to a scheduled prenatal medical appointment at a local hospital, and claim her last visit with an OB-GYN was in October 2022.
According to court records, the corrections department said Harrell has refused some prenatal care.
"Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation partners with Jackson Health System to provide healthcare to the inmates in our custody, and we are committed to ensuring all inmates receive professional, timely medical care and all appropriate treatment," Miami-Dade Corrections officials said in a statement last month. "We are conducting a full review of the health services offered and received to ensure that all pre-natal care being provided in our custody is appropriate."
