Ex-USC Student to Serve 5 Years in Baby’s Death

A former USC student who dumped her newborn down a garbage chute after giving birth in a dorm room in 1997 was sentenced Friday to 10 years in state prison, but under a plea deal will serve half the time.

Linda Chu, 22, pleaded no contest Feb. 18 to a charge of child abuse and admitted that it led to her daughter’s death.

She had been charged with murder and child abuse, which could have resulted in a prison sentence of 25 years to life had she been convicted.

Superior Court Judge Stephen E. O’Neil levied the maximum sentence on Chu. But he said that she would serve half the time under terms of the plea agreement.

Chu’s defense lawyer, Shawn Chapman, said her client, a sophomore business student at the time, had been in denial of her pregnancy.

Chu said she gave birth while taking a shower May 7, 1997. She said the baby fell from her body, hit her head on the floor of the shower and died.

“She did everything she could to give it life. The choice to discard the child was poor,” Chapman told the judge.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Slavitt offered another perspective.

“Linda did have alternatives. She was educated, she came from a privileged background . . . instead, she chose to commit a selfish act,” Slavitt said.

Chapman said her client, who will be 27 when she gets out of prison, has arranged to complete her college degree via correspondence course while she is incarcerated.