A Greenville mother is facing child neglect and attempted murder charges after an infant boy was found in a trash can on Chaney Street, authorities said.
The newborn boy who was found wrapped in a plastic grocery bag and inside a trash can in the Nicholtown community the same day he was born is expected to be OK and will be placed in a foster home once he is released from the hospital, police said Tuesday. "We got a good report from the hospital that they were able to get him in there and get medical attention to him," Greenville Police spokesman Johnathan Bragg said. More details on the baby's condition weren't available Tuesday as police tried to secure a court order to allow his medical information to be released, Bragg said. Meanwhile, the boy's mother — 29-year-old Sharon Lenise Ferguson of 18 Chaney St. — is in jail on a $125,000 bond on charges in arrest warrants of attempted murder and unlawful neglect of a child. On Monday afternoon, a landlord checking on the condition of the home at 18 Chaney St. saw traces of blood on the trash can in the backyard where the boy was found. The mother had been told not to live at the residence, but she had been staying there anyway, Bragg said. "She wasn't supposed to be living there, but she had been in there," he said. The baby, who authorities believe was born earlier Monday, had been placed in a plastic grocery bag that was wrapped with a pink blanket, according to warrants. This is the second case of a newborn being abandoned in unsanitary conditions in the past three years. In February 2011, 24-year-old Jessica Blackham of Easley gave birth and left her newborn in a toilet in a bathroom of the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, which was known then as the Bi-Lo Center, during intermission of a circus show. Blackham claimed in court that she didn't know she was pregnant. Nearly a year later, a judge sentenced her to a year of home imprisonment and three years probation, with a provision that she serve five years in prison if she violated probation. Blackham pleaded guilty to infliction of great bodily injury on a child. She had faced another charge of unlawful neglect of a child, but the charge was dismissed when she pleaded guilty. The attempted murder charge in Ferguson's case was "the crime that fit," Bragg said. "It can't be compared to the Bi-Lo Center," he said, "because it's a completely different case, completely different circumstances." Under "safe haven" laws in South Carolina, a mother is allowed to leave an unwanted baby at a hospital, EMS provider, fire station, law enforcement agency or worship center within 30 days of birth, Bragg said. The boy will be released into the custody of the state Department of Social Services, which will find him a foster home, Bragg said. |
Chicago teen wraps newborn boy in bag and leaves him outside to die: police Ana Rosa Mora, 18, was concerned her boyfriend would leave her since her newborn looked like her ex-boyfriend who was the father. A construction worker found the child a few hours after she left the child outside and then went back to bed.
An 18-year-old Chicago woman wrapped her newborn in a bag and left him outside to die because she feared the child looked like her ex-boyfriend and her current beau would leave her, cops said. Ana Rosa Mora is facing charges of first-degree murder following the senseless action, reports the Chicago Tribune. The mother gave birth over the weekend and came to school Monday after allegedly committing the act — even showing staff members pictures of a newborn girl that she downloaded from the Internet, authorities said. But after employees noticed strange behavior — such as the girl asking if authorities could link her to the child through DNA and lying about the baby's age — they alerted authorities, the newspaper reported. The child had been found by a construction worker a few hours after the child was left outside, authorities said. The boy was born alive but died of asphyxia and possible exposure, authorities said. The new mother said her ex-boyfriend was the father and when the child was born she feared her current boyfriend would notice and leave her, the newspaper reported. She was arrested Friday. Mora, who was scheduled to graduate from high school in June and attend college in the fall is now being held on $500,000 bail, the newspaper reported. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mom-leaves-newborn-baby-die-article-1.1770804#ixzz31n6pZOHv |