Lee Hood, a public defender representing Toribio, waived the reading of charges in a court appearance Friday.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said no circumstances would qualify Toribio for the death penalty. She said the state's current law allows the death penalty in limited circumstances such as cases of murdering a police officer or murder for hire.
The state on July 1 did away with the death penalty for murder in most cases, where the maximum penalty is now a life sentence without possibility of parole.
The district attorney's office was evaluating whether other people could be charged for failing to report suspected child abuse.
Brandenburg said people have a duty to report suspected child abuse, though she acknowledged it was "a real gray area" and that no decision had been made.
Albuquerque police had said Toribio was recently homeless because she had been kicked out of her mother's house and a friend's apartment for ignoring her son.
Toribio's sister said Friday that the boy was doted on by family members, who she said were devastated by his mother's alleged actions.
"The night Tyruss passed, the Tiffany we all knew and loved also passed with him," Emily Apodaca said in a prepared statement read at Calvary Chapel, where she is a member.
Apodaca described her sister as a loving mother but acknowledged that the family, which lives in Zia Pueblo, northwest of Albuquerque, had little contact with Toribio since August. Apodaca said she stopped speaking to her sister after Toribio got involved in a bad relationship.
"I don't know what happened within this year to make her feel there was no one on her side, or that there was nowhere for her to turn," Apodaca said. "Tyruss came into this world born to a lost and confused girl, but he changed her. She loved him more than life itself, and that's the sad and devastating part of this."
Apodaca said she contacted Toribio on May 7, when Toribio was living with their mother. But Toribio generally has kept her whereabouts secret, Apodaca said, making it difficult to keep informed about her nephew.
