Woman found guilty of killing newborn baby, throwing her in neighbor's backyard
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. - A Colorado woman was found guilty on Tuesday of killing her newborn baby after throwing the infant into a neighbor’s backyard last year.
A Douglas County jury found Camille Wasinger-Konrad, 25, guilty on all three counts of first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office of the 18th Judicial District.
“Of all the many emotions of the magical first moments of a baby’s life, of all the many tender moments a mother shared in that first embrace with a completely helpless and fragile life, smothering a newborn and pitching its body over a fence in the cold of January is impossible to understand,” District Attorney George Brauchler said in the release. “Who are we as a people that someone among us has such disregard for the most innocent of lives — a life they helped created? Disgusting.”
Wasinger-Konrad was renting a room from a Highlands Ranch family when in the early morning of Jan. 2, 2018, she gave birth to a girl in her bedroom, according to prosecutors. According to authorities, she covered the baby’s mouth and nose to stop her from crying to not wake other people. Wasinger-Konrad then carried the newborn baby downstairs to back deck where she threw the baby into a neighbor’s backyard, prosecutors said.
The neighbor found the child dead at 9:48 p.m. that night and alerted the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, according to prosecutors.
“That little girl was on that deck for 948 minutes,” Deputy District Attorney Valerie Brewster told the jury. “This defendant went about her day, knowing her unnamed daughter was there, helpless. She thought and made that choice.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Gallo gave the closing arguments, the release said.
“This tiny baby was smothered by her mother, flung over a neighbor’s fence and left to die by the only human she had ever known,” Gallo told the jury. “This defendant hurled her newborn 11 feet over an 8-foot fence, knowingly consigning her to her death. This little girl died in the cold without the dignity of even a name.”
Wasinger-Konrad’s sentencing is set for Nov. 15. The mandatory sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to prosecutors.
“It’s not only justice for the infant child but also a statement for the Douglas County community in how strongly we believe in the criminal justice system. We are glad to be a part of bringing this person to justice,” Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said in the press release. “I continue to be proud of the men and women of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and appreciate the hours the detectives on this case spent investigating it. We are grateful for the partnership we have with the district attorney’s office that brings results such as this one.”
The press release also noted that Colorado has a Safe Haven Law whereby a parent can hand over a newborn up to 72 hours old to an employee at any fire station of hospital “with no questions asked.”
This story was reported from Los Angeles.