A Florida woman who was arrested in July 2022 after she opened fire inside an Uber and killed a mother of three has found a clever argument to get out of jail.
Natalia Harrell, 24, reportedly shot and killed 28-year-old Gladys Yvette Borcela on July 24, 2022, in Miami, Florida, after getting into an Uber that included at least five other passengers. The shooting happened inside a 2020 Cadillac Escalade at around 2:15 a.m.
According to Local 10 News, the women began to argue inside the vehicle, and the confrontation quickly turned physical. Video footage from inside the vehicle showed Borcela and Harrell arguing before Harrell took a gun out of her purse and shot Borcela in the stomach.
After the Uber driver stopped the vehicle near Southeast First Avenue and First Street, everyone reportedly got out and ran except for Borcela.
Harrell was arrested on July 26 and charged with second-degree murder for shooting Borcela. Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Director James Reyes said Harrell’s first pregnancy test on her first day in custody was negative. She tested positive on Aug. 12.
Harrell’s unborn child’s attorney, William M. Norris, filed an emergency motion on Feb. 17, claiming the fetus’ incarceration violates the fetus’ constitutional rights. According to Channel3000.com, Norris argued in his 24-page document that the imprisonment of his client who is eight months pregnant was “draconian confinement.”
Norris also argued the state of Florida has endangered the unborn child by keeping Harrell in such “close proximity” to criminals due to her incarceration.
“Unborn Child has not been charged with any crime by the State. Further, the State has placed the Unborn Child in such inherently dangerous environment by placing the Unborn Child in close proximity to violent criminal offenders,” read the court document.
The motion also claims Harrell’s unborn child is not receiving adequate prenatal care such as vitamins and specialist visits. The motion further states Harrell was trapped in a jail transport van without air conditioning in 100-degree weather. She has been held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami since her arrest.
“The Unborn Child should be released so they can get necessary care and treatment, be free from “unlawful and illegal detention” and avoid entering the world in a dangerous environment like a prison cell.”
According to the New York Post, Harrell told the victim, “You don’t want this; you don’t want me to go in my purse,” before shooting her. Harrell allegedly became annoyed after Borcela drank and danced at a nightclub earlier in the evening.
The attorney claims that Harrell was afraid that Borcela wanted to hurt her and her baby and that she, according to Channel3000.com, “leaped from the third row of seats to the second row” and removed her gun from her purse before firing a single round.
A GoFundMe page set up by Borcela’s mother, Yvette Rivera, raised $6,745. Rivera said that Borcela left behind three children.
“This is the most devastating news a mother can receive. My daughter’s life was taken away from her and she did not deserve this,” wrote Rivera. “She was the life of the party and a beautiful soul to be around. She always held her hand out for any one that needed her even when she had battles of her own.”
“She put her 3 beautiful children first and now they have to grow up and only hear of memories of their beautiful mother. I don’t even know how to tell my grand baby’s someone took their mother away from us. Our family is heartbroken.”
