AUSTIN (KXAN) — Magen Fieramusca pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering her best friend, Heidi Broussard, in 2019. Travis County District Court Judge Selena Alvarenga sentenced her to 55 years in prison.

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to find justice for this horrendous crime. You have deprived an innocent child — an innocent baby — of the opportunity of growing up with her mother,” Alvarenga said to a tearful Fieramusca.

Maygen Humphreys aka Magen Fieramusca and Heidi Broussard (Courtesy Caressa Nolte and Rachel West)
Maygen Humphreys aka Magen Fieramusca and Heidi Broussard (Courtesy Caressa Nolte and Rachel West)

On Thursday, Broussard’s family and friends filled the front two rows of the 460th Criminal District Court to hear the sentencing. They carried with them a large photo of a smiling Broussard; hushed cries could be heard around the room.

“Heidi’s hugs were strong and full of love,” Broussard’s mother, Tammy, said to the court. “I still feel them now.”

“She loved beyond measure, and she never gave up on anyone. When I think of her – which is every moment and everything I do – I ask what would Heidi say or think. And it gives me peace.” Broussard’s mother continued. 

“We miss her dearly.”

Broussard’s body was found stuffed in a duffel bag in the trunk of a car near a home in Jersey Village, Texas, where Fieramusca was living with her ex-boyfriend, Christopher Green in late 2019. She had been missing for more than a week before her body was found. 

The car where Broussard’s body was found was registered to Fieramusca, and inside the home was Broussard’s daughter, Margo Carey, who Fieramusca pretended was her own, according to police. 

Fieramusca met Broussard 10 years before she killed her when they were pre-teens at a church camp called the Texas Bible Institute, according to a friend. The two were so close that Fieramusca was one of the three people at the south Austin hospital where Broussard delivered her baby, Margo.

While Brousard was pregnant, Fieramusca told her boyfriend at the time, Green, that she was also pregnant. Green said that Fieramusca’s stomach hardened and grew during this period, but, due to their relationship being rocky, he never saw her bare stomach, according to police documents. 

After Margo’s birth, family members came into the room. When the baby’s paternal grandfather, was handed the baby to hold, Fieramusca interjected herself and wanted to hold the baby, saying she had to leave, the affidavit said.

Fieramusca stayed at Broussard and Shane Carey’s, Margo’s dad, apartment in the 700 block of W. William Cannon Drive that night, the affidavit said. Carey gave Fieramusca a key, and Carey said afterward he never found the key he let Fieramusca borrow, the affidavit said.

Carey said, on Dec. 8 or 9 of 2019, Broussard told him Fieramusca had a baby girl. Carey didn’t see any photographs of the child, the affidavit said. According to the affidavit, “Magen Fieramusca presented Heidi Broussard’s Newborn Child as her own to her boyfriend.”

Fieramusca told the Texas Rangers she left to go to the beach with a cousin Dec. 12, the affidavit said. When her ex-boyfriend saw her the next day, Fieramusca told him, “don’t be mad, don’t be mad.” He asked why, and Fieramusca said she went to a birthing center in The Woodlands and had the baby, the affidavit said.

Texas Rangers saw Fieramusca’s ex-boyfriend, Green, buying baby formula a few weeks after Brousard had gone missing, according to the affidavit. When they showed him a flyer of Margo Carey, he looked at it and replied, “that’s the baby in my house,” the affidavit said.

When the Texas Rangers asked Fieramusca about the birth, Fieramusca said she brought her baby home Dec. 12., but could not recall the name of the birthing center she went to, the affidavit said.

Complete coverage of the case

“Today our hearts at the District Attorney’s office continue to break for Heidi and for the Broussard and Carey families. We are hopeful that the outcome today can bring some level of closure for the families,” Travis County District attorney Jose Garza said. 

“This is something I never imagined in my whole life,” said Broussard’s mother addressing Fieramusca. “She was so full of life, and now it has been taken from her.”