Young teen accused of choking newborn to death reenacts the event for detectives

LAKELAND - In her own words, the 14-year-old Lakeland girl accused of killing her newborn baby to death explains why and how she did it.

It’s part of new evidence the state released on Friday in the capital murder case against Cassidy Goodson.

The evidence includes a stunning step-by-step reenactment for investigators inside the home where the birth and death occurred, according to the sheriff’s office.

In the video reenactment, detectives had the girl demonstrate using a Santa Claus doll as the baby.

She remained calm and composed as she relived the painful September morning when she secretly gave birth.

“I picked the baby up and turned it around,” said the soft-spoken teen as she demonstrated to investigators what happened.

“Its eyes weren’t open but I felt to see if it was breathing or not, and (it was breathing) so I put my hands around its throat to make it stop breathing,” she said.

Goodson told detectives she choked the baby for about one minute.

That’s all it took.

“How hard did you squeeze?” One detective asked.

“Enough for it to stop breathing,” she said.

Her blatant admission helped turn the baby’s death into a capital murder case against the girl who gave birth him.

The teen went to great lengths to keep her pregnancy hidden by wearing baggy clothing and cheating on pregnancy tests that her mom forced her to take.

Included in the new batch of evidence released on Friday is an interview with her mother, Teresa Goodson.

“I thought she was just getting fat and gaining weight, honestly,” she said. “If I would have known this would never have happened.”

The interviews with detectives makes it clear Goodson did not want to disappoint her parents.

That’s why she kept her pregnancy a secret and that’s why she said she killed her baby.

“I was scared of what was going to happen and if I was going to get in trouble,” she said.

Goodson said she did not have a plan ready after she killed the baby. She placed the baby’s lifeless body in a shoebox in her room.

Her mother later found the body when trying to trace down a foul odor.

The state is charging Goodson as an adult for murder, which means if convicted she could get life in prison but it’s unlikely given her age.