Amanda Hein will spend the rest of her life behind bars for the murder of her newborn son in Pennsylvania sports bar bathroom.
Hein could have faced the death penalty for capital murder, but as part of a plea bargain on March 28, she entered a guilty plea .
It was then up to a Northampton County (Pa.) jury to decide if Hein was guilty of first degree or third degree murder. The first degree murder charge carried a life sentence, while the third degree charge would have jailed Hein for up to 40 years. The jury rendered its decision after three hours of deliberation on Thursday. “At 27 years old, Hein will spend the rest of her life in prison without hope of parole, an automatic sentence given the Northampton County jury’s verdict. Judge Paula Roscioli imposed it immediately and noted that Hein waived her rights to appeal as part of the plea agreement that produced this week’s degree-of-guilt trial.”
Hein was at Starters Pub in Bethlehem Pa., on August 18, 2013, to watch WWE Summer Slam when she gave birth in the ladies room. She wrapped the baby in a plastic bag and left it in the toilet tank. The baby’s body was discovered the next day by the cleaning crew. “The boy died of suffocation, with cold-water exposure and a lack of medical care contributing, authorities said. But medical experts for the defense and the prosecution sharply disagreed over the child’s condition at birth.” According to her defense lawyer, this was not a premeditated act but instead Hein thought that the newborn was already dead “and the baby likely suffocated from the plastic bag Hein wrapped him in…”
Apparently she kept her pregnancy a secret, and did not seek medical attention after this incident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NtEkic0x-c
There will be no appeal in the Amanda Hein case. “Hein had faced capital-murder charges in the killing. But under a plea bargain March 28, [the prosecutor] dropped his pursuit of the death penalty in exchange for a conviction for murder, the degree of which the jury had to determine. Hein, in turn, gave up a possible manslaughter defense and agreed to forfeit future appeals.”
[Image via Gennadii Borodin / Shutterstock.com ]
