Mother Sentenced in Newborn’s Death

A woman convicted of negligent homicide in the death of her newborn daughter, whose body was stuffed in a coffee can, was sentenced Wednesday to a year in jail and three years’ probation.

Marianne Biancuzzo, 20, has said she initially believed that she was only a few months’ pregnant and had a miscarriage in November 1997. She maintained that she thought the child was stillborn, but prosecutors said she drowned the baby in the toilet. Experts testified that the baby, born at full term, took at least a few gulps of air before dying.