A New Mexico teenage mother was sentenced Monday to a mandatory 18 years in prison for tossing her newborn son into a trash bin behind a shopping center, but a state district judge cited mental health concerns and the defendant's age in suspending two years of the punishment.

Jurors convicted Alexis Avila, 19, of child abuse involving great bodily harm following a days-long trial last month in which her public defender argued her actions were not premeditated and that a previously undiagnosed mental health disorder played a role.

Judge William Shoobridge told Avila that had it not been for luck and the grace of God he would have been deliberating a sentence in a murder case as there was a high probability the child would have died had it not been found by three people looking through the dumpster that winter day in Hobbs, near the Texas border.

He ordered that Avila continue with treatment, medication and her higher education while serving her sentence.

"You’ve given yourself a life sentence of knowing what you did with your child," he told her. "And you’ve also given your son that same life sentence, and that is probably something that is as hard to deal with as any length of time that you may have in prison."

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Avila told the judge she wants to learn how to deal with stress and anxiety so she can handle her emotions in a healthier way. She also said she regrets missing out on her son's first milestones and that she denied him motherly love.

"I regret his first hours of life were traumatic, and I regret that he will always have this in the back of his head and will think I do not love him because that’s what he’ll read and hear," she said. "But that’s not true at all. I do love him. I truly do."

Avila was arrested in January 2022 after putting him in the trash bin.

Police said a group of people were looking through the dumpster when they heard what they thought was a dog or kitten. They moved a trash bag and found a baby inside, wrapped in a towel with its umbilical cord still attached. They tried to keep the boy warm until police and paramedics arrived.

Investigators used surveillance video to identify a car suspected of being involved. That led them to Avila.

Search warrants for Avila’s car and her family’s home turned up blood evidence, clothing and a towel.

Prosecutors argued during trial that Avila made a choice to ignore her pregnancy and place her newborn son into two trash bags, secure them with a hair tie and toss the boy into the bin. They told jurors the boy had been in the cold for over six hours.

The judge told Avila that she had the opportunity to correct her actions within in that time but did not.

Public defender Ibukun Adepoju disputed that Avila made a premeditated attempt to kill her baby. Abepoju said while Avila's actions were wrong, they were the result of her bipolar disorder and that she was disassociated and detached from her feelings.

Adepoju told the judge Avila did not pose a threat to the public, has made progress with her therapy and does not take lightly what she did to her child.

"She is not cold-blooded but in need of mental health treatment," Adepoju said in a statement, noting that her client will be 34 years old when she is released from prison and that continued therapy and education during incarceration will be key so she can have a meaningful life.

Avila's case also spurred new conversations in New Mexico communities and among legislators about the state's safe haven law, which allows parents to leave a baby younger than 90 days at a safe location without criminal consequences.

Such laws first began to pass in state legislatures in the early 2000s in response to reports of gruesome baby killings and abandonments, which received copious media attention.

New Mexico lawmakers in 2022 approved a bill to expand the state's Safe Haven Program and provide funds to build one baby box for every county where an infant can be left. Española has a box and Hobbs will be celebrating the installation of a box in that community next week.

Boxes also have been installed in several other states. Florida is the latest to consider legislation that would allow for the boxes.