Murder charge against USC student reinstated
A judge Thursday tentatively reinstated a murder charge against a USC student whose newborn son was found dead in a trash bin.
A final decision was expected to be announced at an Aug. 20 hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Holly Ashcraft, 22, was arrested in October 2005 after the body of a newborn was found by a homeless man sifting through trash behind a popular restaurant-bar near USC.
In March, a judge dismissed a murder charge, saying the evidence supported only lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse leading to death.
Instead, prosecutors had the entire case dismissed and refiled the murder charge.
Ashcraft, an architecture student from Billings, Mont., was suspended from USC pending the outcome of the case. She is free on $200,000 bail.
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