Teen Spared Life in Prison After Throwing Newborn Baby From 2nd Floor Window
A 16-year-old Nebraska girl who admitted to throwing her newborn daughter to her death from the second floor window of her apartment was saved from a possible life sentence when she was allowed to enter a plea of admission in juvenile court this month.
A KMTV report said the teenager, Antonia Lopez from Omaha, was originally charged as an adult with negligent child abuse resulting in death last September. Her case was transferred to the Douglas County Juvenile court on Feb. 1 where she entered a plea of admission.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine told the Omaha World Herald his office agreed to move the case from district court to juvenile court after weighing the teenager's lack of criminal record, her mental state and her actions.
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"It's a horrible case — terrible," Kleine said. "To me, after we looked into it, the way things happened, it didn't seem to be anything you would label as an adult-specific act. It wasn't a planned-out, thought-out process. It was more of a panicked reaction."
According to authorities, Lopez gave birth in the early hours of Sept. 30 inside the apartment she shared with her mother. After throwing the baby out the window, she confessed what she did to her mother who called the police. The baby girl, who was about 14-inches long and weighed 2 pounds, was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
An autopsy later revealed that Lopez was pregnant with the child for about seven months but she told police she had no idea she was pregnant and just woke up in pain on the day she gave birth.
She said she thought she was seeing her period when she laid a towel on the floor of her bedroom to see what was happening. She got in front of a mirror and began to push until a sac emerged from her vagina. She said she pierced the sac with nail clipper. She soon saw feet, then a baby came out.
Omaha Police Officer Chad Kavars, who interviewed the teenager, said she "panicked at that point and threw the baby out the window from her room."
Lopez's boyfriend argued, however, that she knew she was pregnant. He told police that they started dating in January 2016 and had sex in February. When she told him she was pregnant he urged her to tell her mother and get medical help but she didn't.
She reportedly sent him incriminating text messages and a photo through Snapchat while she was in labor, according to the Omaha World.
"Babe I'm having contractions in my lower abs every couple seconds. It hurts so much," she wrote at 12:56 a.m.
Less than two hours later she wrote at 2:23 a.m., "It was a girl by the way." She also asked for help in hiding the baby.
A juvenile court judge accepted her plea of admission and ordered her to supervision by a probation officer outside the home she had shared with her mother, according to KMTV.
She will know at a hearing on March 24 if she will face probation, be sent to a group home, or a detention facility.
She will also face alcohol and drug testing, psychiatric evaluation, school attendance, electronic monitoring and other compliance rules in order to successfully complete her sentence.
"She obviously has some issues that need to be dealt with," Kleine said. "She needs help."
