Woman Sentenced in Dumping of Infant
A woman who pleaded guilty last year to dumping her infant daughter in a trash bin was sentenced Monday to two years in state prison.
Jennifer Michelle Garcia, 20, was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court by Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis.
The Los Angeles County woman was a 19-year-old student at Cal State Fullerton when her child was born at her home on April 9, 1997.
The following day, Garcia’s mother found the baby in the backyard trash bin and confronted her daughter. The women took the infant to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, where the child was pronounced dead.
An autopsy found that the newborn had died of asphyxiation while in the trash bin, said Victoria Pipkin, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
Garcia, who had originally been charged with murder, pleaded guilty March 2 to one count of involuntary manslaughter, Pipkin said.
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