Local News in Brief : Mother Pleads Guilty in Death of Newborn
A 19-year-old unwed mother from Van Nuys, charged with killing her newborn baby with a razor blade in July, pleaded guilty Friday to voluntary manslaughter in Los Angeles Municipal Court.
Martha Cordero apparently was distraught over the birth of her infant, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lloyd Nash said. After delivering the full-term infant herself in the bathroom of her mother’s home, she tried to flush the baby down the toilet and, when that attempt failed, she killed the infant, Nash said.
Family members, seeing blood in the bathroom, took Cordero to a hospital, where she denied having given birth to the baby, Nash said. Family members later recovered the body from under the bathroom sink and returned with it to the hospital. Cordero was charged with murder on July 10.
Cordero could be given a maximum of 11 years in prison when sentenced Oct. 25 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer, Nash said.
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