Jailhouse insemination scheme was ticket out, prisoner thought

(NewsNation) — A Florida jail inmate who conceived a baby from a male prisoner she never met face-to-face told her mother that getting pregnant was her ticket to freedom and a financial settlement.

Things did not work out that way for Daisy Link, who had a daughter in June 2024. The 30-year-old accused murderer has not left the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade County since 2022. 

Officials who investigated Link’s 2023 pregnancy determined it wasn’t a jail staffer, but rather, another inmate who was the father. Joan Depaz, a detainee also charged with murder, had established contact with Link through air-conditioning ventilation. They even exchanged photos and notes, including one message in which Depaz called Link his “snuggle wuggle baby girl.”

But how did the pregnancy happen? In one of their talks through the ventilation shaft, Depaz told Link he wanted to have a baby because he was facing a murder conviction and “might never go home.” So, the two hatched a plan.

How separated Florida inmates pulled off jail pregnancy

Using a cable made partly of bedding material, Depaz, located two floors above, on several occasions placed his semen in rolled-up Saran Wrap and passed it to Link, who inseminated herself with a yeast infection applicator.

In a subsequent, illegal phone call the inmates had, Link said she had missed her period. She was put on lockdown when jail officials discovered she was pregnant. In an interview with WSVN-TV, Depaz likened Link to the Virgin Mary, given the two never touched each other.

Link called her mother Christmas Day, 2023, to break the news that she was carrying a baby. The older woman was incredulous.

“You’re full of s---. This is shocking,” the mother said, according to audio of the phone call.

“What do you mean?” Link responded. “I’m going to sue them and get out. You know how much I can sue them for? This is all planned. I can get out now.”

Her mother responded: “You know what? You’re stupid.”

Daisy Link's second-degree murder case

The baby girl is now living with Depaz’s mother. The male detainee earlier this year pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 25 years in state prison.

Meanwhile, Link’s trial for second-degree murder began this week. She’s accused of fatally shooting her husband Pedro Jimenezon on June 25, 2022. Link’s defense attorney, Tony Tomas, says Link was the victim of domestic abuse and was acting in self-defense.

“He had viciously attacked her just five days before, split her head wide open, pistol-whipped her. Blood everywhere. And she was trying to leave,” Tomas told “Banfield” on Thursday.

Asked about the chances that Link may one day be reunited with her child, the attorney said his client faces several years in prison if convicted.

“Now, whether or not something can be arranged for there to be visits while she’s in jail, that’s certainly possible. But that’s something that they would have to figure out,” Tomas said.

Editor's note: Information in this story is derived, in part, from investigative reports obtained by NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin, who featured this story on his podcast, "Brian Entin Investigates."