Parents of Missing Baby Reject Plea Bargain

Thursday, March 21, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

James and Lillian Meegan are scheduled back in court March 28 after rejecting a plea agreement during a court appearance Wednesday.

Deputy Public Defender Paul Wommers refused to discuss terms of the offer, but said it would include the provision that one or both of the defendants tell what happened to the baby and where her body is located.

He said there is a 50-50 chance the case will be resolved before the start of trial.

James Meegan, 39, is accused in a police affidavit of grabbing his crying daughter and shaking her to death five years ago. Police believe Meegan left the family's Las Vegas house with the baby wrapped in a blanket and returned home without her an hour later.

Lillian Meegan, 35, was arrested on felony child abuse and neglect charges related to the baby's disappearance.

The couple have maintained their innocence since police began investigating them after a Meegan family acquaintance told them about the baby's disappearance.

The baby, Francine, was last seen in September 1990, when police suspect she was killed.

Two days after she was born on Dec. 8, 1989, Francine was given to Dennis and Valerie Jensen of Orange County, Calif., in exchange for $30,000 paid over nine months.

That money was used by the Meegans, police said, for a car, a down payment on a house and other items.

Formal adoption proceedings were halted when the Meegans took the child back. The baby was in the Meegans' care for only a few weeks before she vanished.

Test results are not yet complete on blood and tissue samples taken from the charred remains of an infant girl found five years ago in Yavapai County, Ariz.