Death of Newborn Called a Homicide

The infant found dead last fall in a trash bin near USC was the victim of a homicide and may have been intentionally asphyxiated, according to a final autopsy report issued Tuesday by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Deputy Medical Examiner David B. Whiteman concluded that the baby boy had been born alive, after a 32-week pregnancy, and Whiteman said his homicide finding was based on “caretaker neglect.” Whiteman’s written opinion said the death resulted from “prematurity and other undetermined factors,” adding that “intentional asphyxia cannot be excluded.”

A 21-year-old USC student, Holly Ashcraft, has pleaded not guilty to murder and child abuse charges in connection with the boy’s death. She was released from jail in November on a $200,000 bond, and will be back in court Feb. 23, when a preliminary hearing is scheduled to be set.

Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, would only say that the final coroner’s report squares with preliminary findings, and “doesn’t really change anything as far as the case goes.

However, Ashcraft’s lawyer, Paul J. Wallin of Tustin, said the autopsy report was important to his client’s case. Wallin noted that the report found no evidence of traumatic external or internal injuries, and it listed prematurity and other undetermined factors as causes of the death, rather than “intentional conduct” by Ashcraft.

In addition, Wallin said the finding that intentional asphyxiation cannot be ruled out only means that “anything is possible. That’s not like saying they’re making any findings that anything like that happened.”

Ashcraft, a native of Billings, Mont., was arrested in October and charged with abandoning her newborn son in a trash bin near her apartment north of the USC campus.

Police said the child was placed inside a cardboard box and left in the bin. A homeless man picking through the trash discovered the child and called police.

Until being suspended after her arrest, Ashcraft was a third-year architecture student.

Adding to the mystery surrounding her case, Ashcraft also was investigated by police, but not arrested or charged, in April 2004 after she arrived at a Los Angeles hospital having just given birth but without a baby.

She told authorities the child had been stillborn and that she had disposed of its body. Law enforcement sources said police did not do an extensive search for the child’s body because they believed too much time had passed to determine if a crime had been committed.

Times staff writer Rebecca Trounson contributed to this report.