Pregnant Woman, Baby Survive Stabbing in Holdup

A woman and her premature baby were in stable condition Sunday at hospitals in Whittier after the mother was stabbed in the abdomen during a robbery outside a City of Industry restaurant, authorities said.

Maria Correa, 20, who was seven months’ pregnant, had improved from critical to stable condition, although she remained in Whittier Hospital Medical Center’s critical care unit, a hospital spokeswoman said.

“She seems like she will be doing fine,” the spokeswoman said.

The baby was delivered by caesarean section after Correa went into premature labor at the medical center. The infant was later transferred to the neonatal center at Whittier’s Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman Matthew Rodriguez.

Two men approached Correa and her boyfriend, Alfonso Trujillo, 20, as the couple walked across a parking lot from their car to the Velvet Turtle restaurant in the 17500 block of Castleton Street shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, Rodriguez said.

When the men demanded money, Trujillo gave them his cash and Correa handed over her purse, the deputy said.

“She complied with all of their requests,” Rodriguez said. “Still one of the men stabbed her. . . . This is a horrific crime.”