Anxiety Spurred Mother to Kill Baby, Prosecutor Says

A Burbank woman who police say leaped last year from an overpass onto the Ventura Freeway moments after her infant son’s death intended to kill the baby--and then herself--because she believed she’d be a bad mother, a prosecutor said Monday.

“She thought she wouldn’t be able to take care of the baby adequately,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen L. Tandler said in an interview Monday after 31-year-old Tani McCollough pleaded not guilty to a single murder count in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Burbank police arrested McCollough on Friday in connection with the Nov. 23 suffocation death of her son, Colin, who was 10 days old.

Tandler, who works in the district attorney’s Family Violence division, said she expects McCollough’s emotional and mental state to play a role in the case.

Prosecutors decided to file charges, Tandler said, based on “evidence of a statement of intent by the defendant with regard to killing her child and herself.” Tandler declined to discuss specifics, saying that information would be presented at a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 23.

McCollough is being held on $1-million bail. Defense attorney Bernard Talmas said he will seek a bail reduction at a hearing set for Monday.

Police and prosecutors said that, according to witnesses, McCollough seemed depressed after the birth of Colin, her first child. But, Tandler said, “There’s a big difference between postpartum blues and taking the life of your child. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

Burbank police said they were called to McCollough’s apartment at about 10:06 a.m. on Nov. 23, when her husband, Jeffrey McCollough, returned home from work and found the baby was bleeding from the mouth and had been left unattended.

The infant was rushed to St. Joseph Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m.

At about the same time, a woman later identified as McCollough leaped from the Hollywood Way overpass onto the Ventura Freeway. She suffered a fractured neck, skull and wrist, but recovered.