Woman Pleads Guilty To Setting Newborn On Fire In Middle Of New Jersey Road
Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, a New Jersey woman, pleaded guilty Monday to dousing her newborn with an accelerant and setting her on fire in the middle of a New Jersey road, CBS News is reporting.
At about 11:15 p.m. on January 16, 2015, police say, Dorvilier wrapped the newborn baby in towels and papers, and doused in in WD40, a flammable spray lubricant, before setting her on fire in the middle of the street. When neighbors asked what was happening, she said she was burning dog waste that her dog had left in her car.
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— Alexey (@Alekzzzzz) January 17, 2015
Residents called 911 when the baby started crying, and detained Dorvilier when she tried to flee. She said repeatedly “It’s not mine, It’s not mine, I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it.” The 911 caller at the time told emergency dispatchers to rush to the scene because there was a “baby on fire.” “You just had a baby. How could you do this? You should have dropped it off at the hospital,” the dispatcher told Dorvilier. A man could be heard in the background telling Dorvilier to stay on the ground. “You are not going anywhere,” the man had reportedly said.
Police responded to the fire and when they arrived found a neighbor holding Dorvilier down on the ground. The fire had been quenched. According to court documents, the baby was still wrapped in smoldering paper and a towel. A lighter and can of WD-40 were found in Dorvilier’s jacket pocket.
Police followed a trail of blood leading back to her home, discovering more blood and a spattered rag in the downstairs bathroom of the split-level home. Dorvilier was taken to the Lourdes Emergency Department at Deborah Hospital, where officers observed her bleeding on a hospital gurney as she waited for a doctor.
The baby had third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body. She died two hours later after being airlifted to St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia.
Authorities confirmed that Dorvilier hid her pregnancy from her sister and mother. Her umbilical cord and placenta were still found attached to the baby when it was recovered.
Dorvilier has been in jail since being arrested January 17, 2015, at the Gerard L. Gormley Justice Facility. Prosecutors will recommend a 30-year jail term. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 22.
Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, set her newborn daughter on fire in the middle of the street on Jan. 16, 2015 pic.twitter.com/06D5zI3sIR
— Paul D (@paulrdube1) February 28, 2016
Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier is, unfortunately, not the first mother to attempt to burn a baby to death.
As the Sacramento Bee reports, in 2011, Ka Yang 34, put her 1-year-old, Mirabelle Thao-Lo, in the microwave for over five minutes. The child was fatally injured in the heating process. Medical experts said she would have been in terrible pain as the radiation burns ruptured her internal organs. Yang was convicted of assault and first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Her lawyers argued that she was not aware of her actions because she suffered an epileptic seizure.
The Sacramento County Superior Court said that even though she had a background of seizures, paramedics did not find her disoriented and that her account of what happened changed several times. Prosecutors claim that she put her child deliberately in the oven because the child was distracting her from her work for a local architectural firm.
Elizabeth Renee Otte was convicted in a similar case when she placed her 1-month-old son in a microwave in Lanexa, Virginia, and went to bed, according to ABC News. Jurors accepted her defense that she was not aware of her actions because she was in an epileptic blackout. She was jailed for ten years.
[Image via Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office/WKXW]
