The Hispanic mother at the center of South Florida's infamous "Baby Lollipops" murder case has been sentenced to death

A Miami-Dade jury had recommended the death penalty for Ana Maria Cardona in 2010 after she was found guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated abuse in the beating death of her 3-year-old son Lazaro Figueroa. At the sentencing, Cardona made a statement and said she wished she could change her life and the life of her son. Speaking in Spanish, Cardona said that she wished her son "could have been blessed with a better mother, one who would have protected him and always been there for him." She explained how she was addicted to drugs and said she was a coward. Cardona was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992, but the Florida Supreme Court later overturned the conviction due to procedural problems. After hearing the evidence against her for a second time, a new jury also found her guilty. Three-year-old Lazaro Figueroa was killed in November of 1990. His body was found dumped beneath a hedge in the yard of a Miami Beach home. The boy had been starved, beaten and burned. He weighed only 18 pounds when he was murdered, half the weight of what he should have been. The case will be sent to the Florida Supreme Court on appeal.