Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Teen mom faces murder charge in baby’s death

A 15-year-old Henderson girl who tried to conceal her pregnancy from her parents will be charged this week with murder in connection with the drowning death of her newborn son in a toilet, a prosecutor told the Sun.

The Clark County district attorney's office expects to charge the girl with second-degree murder and felony child abuse or child neglect in the next day or two, chief deputy district attorney Douglas Herndon, head of the special victims unit, said.

"She had taken pregnancy tests before and had told some of her friends she was pregnant," Herndon said. "Apparently she saw the child moving in the toilet after giving birth and left, leaving the child in the toilet."

The girl tried to conceal her pregnancy from her parents, Henderson Police Capt. Richard Perkins said.

Henderson Police were called to the girl's apartment April 19, where they found the baby dead in the toilet. An autopsy determined the child drowned.

"Situations like this are always a tragedy," Perkins said.

Since the teenager faces murder charges, she will be booked as an adult into the Clark County Detention Center, Herndon said, though her attorney could ask that the case be moved to juvenile court.

Perkins said the girl was not arrested sooner, because an autopsy was needed and prosecutors were asked to review the case. He added police did not believe she was a threat to the community.

"This isn't a violent criminal so much as a disturbed young girl," he said. "There have much more heinous cases than this."

Perkins referred to a 1998 case in Henderson in which a 19-year-old woman was accused of giving birth to a girl, then putting the baby in a bag in a closet. An autopsy determined the baby died of asphyxiation.

Marie Adams was charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to felony child neglect. She was sentenced to six months of house arrest followed by five years of probation.

In a more recent case, a 23-year-old Nellis Air Force Base airman is charged with first-degree murder and faces an October court date in the death of her newborn.

A doctor realized Candice Kitto had given birth after she was taken to the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital on Dec. 9 complaining of an illness.

The baby was found dead in the closet of her apartment, police said. In March an autopsy determined the child was born alive and ruled out natural causes or birth defects as a cause of death. Kitto's husband, who apparently didn't know his wife was pregnant, was not charged.

A few cases of mothers killing their newborns get nationwide attention, but there are hundreds of reported incidents each year, Jon'a Meyer, a criminal justice professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said at the time of Kitto's arrest.

Some women, usually teenage girls, deny to themselves they are pregnant or conceal their pregnancy from their parents, she said.

The infant is killed to eliminate any evidence of the pregnancy, said Meyer, who has studied many cases of neonaticide.

One case in 1997 made nationwide news as Melissa Drexler, dubbed the "Prom Mom," gave birth in a bathroom at her high school prom and then, according to police, strangled the baby and returned to the dance. She pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

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