Girl Won’t Face Charge in Her Newborn’s Death

The Ventura County district attorney’s office has decided not to file charges against a 16-year-old Simi Valley girl who left the body of her newborn girl in a supermarket dumpster last January.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Hutchins said Tuesday there was insufficient evidence to prove the mother caused the death of the girl, who police dubbed Baby Jane Doe I.

Hutchins said prosecutors could have filed misdemeanor charges against the girl for dumping the baby’s body, but decided it would serve no useful purpose to prosecute her. The teen-ager, whose name was not released, is undergoing counseling, he said.

The baby’s body, wrapped inside a green plastic trash bag, was found Jan. 6 by a transient rummaging through a dumpster behind an Alpha Beta supermarket on Alamo Street in Simi Valley.

Medical tests could not determine the cause of death but indicate the child lived only long enough take one or two breaths before it died, Hutchins said. The mother, who had not received prenatal care, was 15 when she gave birth in the bedroom of her Simi Valley home, he said.

Acting on a tip, police arrested the mother Sept. 22 on suspicion of murder. She was held at Ventura County Juvenile Hall in Ventura for three days and then released as authorities investigated the case.

More than 100 mourners, many of them police officers, attended the funeral for Baby Jane Doe I at Assumption Cemetery. A similar funeral was held at the cemetery on Nov. 23 for another baby girl, Baby Jane Doe II, who was found inside a shopping bag near the Simi Valley landfill on Nov. 17.