Mother Sentenced in Newborn’s Death

A Cypress mother of three was convicted Thursday of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her newborn baby girl, whose body was found in a plastic bag on the floor of a bedroom closet.

Marchelle Lynn Black, 29, had been charged with murder, but Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald reduced the charge earlier in the trial, which he heard without a jury.

Fitzgerald said Black’s role in the baby’s June 17, 1990, death was “an aberration in an otherwise law-abiding life” and sentenced her to three years of formal probation, plus regular drug monitoring.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans said the judge’s decision “was appropriate, given the facts of the case,” which included the inability of pathologists to prove that the baby was born alive.

“All in all,” he said, “I’m satisfied with the outcome.”

The baby was found by Black’s husband in a plastic bag on the floor of the couple’s closet. Medical examiners told a county grand jury that the infant, who had evidence of methamphetamine in her system, had drowned before being placed in the bag.

Black denied being pregnant to her husband, Jeffrey, despite his frequently voiced suspicions.

However, when she began hemorrhaging, her father-in-law took her to a Norwalk hospital, where medical personnel alerted police, according to police reports.

Jeffrey Black told officers that he did not know that his wife was pregnant, but after officers left he searched the apartment and found the baby’s body, police said.

Friends of Black said she appeared to be under physical and emotional strain at the time.