Can you be pregnant full term and not know?
I read this article in Newsday today. Besides being furious and nauseated by this woman's appaling actions, I was stunned that she claimed she didn't know she was pregnant until she delivered.
I've read many posts on this board about discomfort, babies leaning on bladders, etc....and I'm hard pressed to believe she carried full term and never knew. Since I've never been pregnant, I'm putting this out to all the moms for comment.
Here is the article...
Mom Gets 18-Life for Infant's Murder
By Chau Lam
Staff Writer
July 23, 2003, 3:20 PM EDT
The North Massapequa waitress convicted of murder for suffocating and killing her newborn child on Christmas Day in 2001 by putting him in a plastic bag and tucking him under her bed was sentenced today to a term of 18 years to life in prison today.
Nassau County Court Judge Jerald S. Carter said the sentence would run concurrently with the years before Kathleen Brown's son, Christian, would have legally become an adult. Brown was convicted in May of second-degree murder in the Dec. 25, 2001, death.
'I don't know what went through your mind ... but nothing can bring back Christian,' the judge told her in imposing the jail term.
Brown, 26, who did not testify at her murder trial spoke publicly for the first time yesterday and told Carter that she did not know she was pregnant, reiterating what her attorney, Marvin Zevin, said during the trial.
On the day she delivered her baby alone in her bedroom Brown said she thought the boy, whom she named Christian, was dead. 'I shook him. I moved him. He didn't move. He didn't open his eyes,' Brown told Carter prior to sentencing in the hope that the judge would show mercy.
But Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said the evidence in the case proved she was aware of the pregnancy. 'I think the sentence was fair given the circumstances,' said Biancavilla.
Prosecutors argued that Brown smothered the child after giving birth as her family enjoyed a Christmas meal elsewhere in the house. Brown placed the boy in a plastic bag and stashed him under her bed until late the following day.
The child was born about 2 p.m., but Brown didn't tell her mother about the birth until 6 p.m. the following day. The mother then told her boyfriend when he returned from work around 8 p.m., but it wasn't until two hours later that the three went to New Island Hospital in Bethpage with the dead infant.
Defense attorney Marvin Zevin contended that Brown believed the child had died during childbirth. Brown claimed the umbilical cord was wrapped around the 5-pound, 8-ounce child's neck, but a medical examiner said there were no ligature marks on the baby's neck that would point to proof of strangulation.
Zevin promised an appeal of the verdict.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
I've read many posts on this board about discomfort, babies leaning on bladders, etc....and I'm hard pressed to believe she carried full term and never knew. Since I've never been pregnant, I'm putting this out to all the moms for comment.
Here is the article...
Mom Gets 18-Life for Infant's Murder
By Chau Lam
Staff Writer
July 23, 2003, 3:20 PM EDT
The North Massapequa waitress convicted of murder for suffocating and killing her newborn child on Christmas Day in 2001 by putting him in a plastic bag and tucking him under her bed was sentenced today to a term of 18 years to life in prison today.
Nassau County Court Judge Jerald S. Carter said the sentence would run concurrently with the years before Kathleen Brown's son, Christian, would have legally become an adult. Brown was convicted in May of second-degree murder in the Dec. 25, 2001, death.
'I don't know what went through your mind ... but nothing can bring back Christian,' the judge told her in imposing the jail term.
Brown, 26, who did not testify at her murder trial spoke publicly for the first time yesterday and told Carter that she did not know she was pregnant, reiterating what her attorney, Marvin Zevin, said during the trial.
On the day she delivered her baby alone in her bedroom Brown said she thought the boy, whom she named Christian, was dead. 'I shook him. I moved him. He didn't move. He didn't open his eyes,' Brown told Carter prior to sentencing in the hope that the judge would show mercy.
But Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said the evidence in the case proved she was aware of the pregnancy. 'I think the sentence was fair given the circumstances,' said Biancavilla.
Prosecutors argued that Brown smothered the child after giving birth as her family enjoyed a Christmas meal elsewhere in the house. Brown placed the boy in a plastic bag and stashed him under her bed until late the following day.
The child was born about 2 p.m., but Brown didn't tell her mother about the birth until 6 p.m. the following day. The mother then told her boyfriend when he returned from work around 8 p.m., but it wasn't until two hours later that the three went to New Island Hospital in Bethpage with the dead infant.
Defense attorney Marvin Zevin contended that Brown believed the child had died during childbirth. Brown claimed the umbilical cord was wrapped around the 5-pound, 8-ounce child's neck, but a medical examiner said there were no ligature marks on the baby's neck that would point to proof of strangulation.
Zevin promised an appeal of the verdict.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
