After the robbery, with a police officer and her boyfriend dead, Gutierrez said she was faced with a decision: kill herself or surrender.
She thought about Ashley again and chose life.
Those details were revealed Monday when prosecutors played Gutierrez's taped confession during the fourth day of testimony in her first-degree murder trial of Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero.
On July 6, 2001, Ashley was 2 years old. Her father, Nestor ``Chino'' DeJesus, and Gutierrez had $1 between them, according to the confession.
Gutierrez remembered DeJesus had a list of reasons why they needed to rob a bank.
We ``had no cash, no food, no milk, or anything and he, he, he said let's go,'' Gutierrez told Tampa police homicide Detective Aubrey Gene Black.
They drove to the Bank of America at 1501 S. Church St.
``I was scared. I didn't wanna go,'' Gutierrez said.
She said she held the 9 mm handgun and followed DeJesus into the bank. Both hid their faces with scarves or bandannas.
``He didn't force you to go in though, right?'' Black asked on the tape.
``No,'' Gutierrez said.
Her answer seems to contradict her defense strategy. Her public defender, DeeAnn Athan, says DeJesus forced Gutierrez to rob the bank.
Athan contends Black steered Gutierrez away from discussing why she was scared and how DeJesus treated her. Black testified that wasn't true.
``Chino was dead,'' Black said. ``If there's ever a time to come forward and say, `He forced me to do it,' that would be the time to do it,'' Black said during his testimony Monday.
During Black's taped interview with Gutierrez, he took her through the day's events, from the bank robbery to the getaway and the slaying of Marrero.
Gutierrez said they were at the Crossings Apartments on Cleveland Street when Marrero spotted DeJesus.
``She said ... `Stop or I'm gonna shoot you. I'm gonna shoot you.' She was grabbing her gun ... and then he shot her,'' Gutierrez said on the tape.
Other witnesses said Marrero never removed her 9 mm Glock pistol from its holster.
Gutierrez said DeJesus ordered her to grab the dead officer's gun. A previous witness testified Gutierrez took the gun on her own.
She also had Marrero's blood on her. DNA tests of a bloodstain on Gutierrez's camouflaged T-shirt revealed that, said prosecutor Jay Pruner.
After Marrero was shot, Gutierrez and DeJesus broke into the apartment of Isaac Davis, holding him hostage.
It took 3 1/2 hours for the standoff to end. DeJesus shot and killed himself. A hostage negotiator told Gutierrez to think of Ashley and give herself up. She did.
``He [DeJesus] wanted you to kill yourself?'' Black asked Gutierrez.
``Yeah,'' Gutierrez said.
``Why didn't you?'' Black asked.
``For my daughter,'' Gutierrez said.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Gutierrez faces a mandatory life term in prison. Ashley is 4 and is doing fine, Athan said. The child lives with her maternal grandparents.
Reporter Joshua B. Good can be reached at (813) 259-7638.