Teenager pleads guilty in death of baby

Bill Gang

Wednesday, April 29, 1998 | 10:26 a.m.

Marie Adams' voice was weak and quivered with emotion as she pleaded guilty to a felony child neglect charge over the death of her newborn baby.

Tuesday's plea bargain saved the 19-year-old Henderson resident the possibility of a conviction to a second-degree murder charge -- with its mandatory prison time -- but still could result in an eight-to-20-year prison sentence when she returns to District Court on June 29.

Adams, who defense attorney Chip Siegel said suffers from a learning disability, had trouble in court explaining the events that led to the death of the 8-pound infant whose body was found in a plastic bag in her closet on Feb. 9.

But Adams gave District Judge Don Chairez a letter telling her tale.

"I have not been able to talk to people about my baby and what happened," the teenager indicated in the one-page letter. "I am so sorry for what has happened. I know what I did was wrong and I was not thinking."

She stated that she concealed her pregnancy from her parents because "I was afraid they wouldn't love me anymore."

In the letter she told how she unexpectedly gave birth in her bathroom although she had planned to go to a midwife and give up the baby for adoption, never letting her parents know.

"I froze. I did not know what to do so I acted very stupidly and put the baby in a bag," she wrote. "There was no movement whatsoever."

Adams explained that even after her mother saw her covered in blood and rushed her to a doctor she didn't reveal for about an hour that she had been pregnant and had given birth.

By then, according to Deputy District Attorney Vickie Monroe, the baby had died either from asphyxiation or from a loss of blood because the umbilical cord had been cut but not tied.

She noted that the baby girl had been alive because an autopsy showed there was air in the lungs.

Monroe said the felony charge resulted from the teenager's inaction in obtaining medical care for the baby or informing her parents that she had given birth.

"I am a good person," Adams wrote to the judge. "I did not mean for any of this to happen. I am terribly sorry."

Siegel, who indicated that Adams has been seeing a psychologist since shortly after the incident, asked Chairez to set aside an hour for the sentencing hearing.

Although probation is possible in the case, Monroe said the plea bargain does not prevent her from arguing that Adams should be sent to prison.

Adams is free on $25,000 bail pending her sentencing hearing.