Woman Accused of Killing Baby Faces Murder Trial

A 20-year-old Escondido woman will be tried on a charge of first-degree murder for allegedly strangling to death her newborn boy and dumping him in a garbage bin.

Vista Municipal Judge Donald E. Rudloff ruled Monday that there is ample evidence to try Tiffany Nicole Sandeffer for the killing last November. The boy’s body was found by a man rummaging through trash bins looking for cans and bottles.

Prosecution witnesses testified that Sandeffer, who either hid a previous pregnancy from others or was unaware of it herself, had been pregnant in the months before the newborn was found. A gynecologist who examined Sandeffer in December said that her condition was consistent with a woman who had recently given birth.

But public defender John Jimenez emphasized that no scientific evidence conclusively linked Sandeffer to the child, who was found in a black trash bag with its umbilical cord and placenta still attached. A prosecution witness who said she saw Sandeffer pregnant last year could have mistaken it for the previous year, when Sandeffer gave birth to her son, Jonathan, Jimenez said.

Jimenez maintains that Sandeffer was not pregnant last year and had nothing to do with the dead child.