MIAMI TWP. — A 40-year-old woman the county prosecutor’s office called “selfish” and “callous,” for putting a baby she birthed in a plastic bag to die, is headed to prison.
>> RELATED: Medics find newborn in plastic bag, in trash can
Jessica Taylor, who accepted a plea agreement Sept. 1 that reduced a potential 11-year sentence to four years, entered an Alford plea to charges of attempted murder, felonious assault and child endangerment. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence.
Medics were called to her Miami Twp. home on Feb. 14, 2019, after a relative said Taylor was in pain and bleeding. Montgomery County prosecutors said paramedics found the infant in a plastic bag, crying. The bag had been put in a garbage can.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman, who sentenced Taylor, also said the woman would have to serve five years of supervised control when she is released from prison.
The baby was in respiratory distress and had to be kept under observation nearly two weeks. He was 6 weeks premature and had received no prenatal care. He tested positive for amphetamines, Kelly Madzey and Dylan Smearcheck, assistant prosecuting attorneys, wrote in their sentencing memo filed with the court.
“Had he been found even minutes later than when first responders pulled him from that trash can, he would not have survived,” according to the memo.
Taylor learned she was pregnant in October 2018, hid it from everyone and claimed to have had a miscarriage when the Women’s Center followed up with her, according to the sentencing memo. Taylor, who had given birth twice before (her sons are now teenagers), never sought medical care and continued to use drugs, according to the memo.
Prosecutors said about 4 p.m. on that 2019 Valentine’s Day, her son heard her screaming in pain and saw her in the bathroom, bloody and nude from the waist down. Despite the fact she was in obvious need of medical care, she never asked for an ambulance or for her son to call 9-1-1.
“Instead she asked for her cigarettes and her cell phone,” prosecutors wrote in the memo. “She asked for towels and a garbage bag.”
Taylor went to lengths to hide that she had given birth. When she spoke to a family friend on the phone, she withheld details, she cut the umbilical cord and flushed the placenta, prosecutors said.
“And she hid ‘the evidence’ in a plastic bag that she tied shut,” prosecutors said. “When first responders arrived and asked her what had happened: if she was pregnant, if she had given birth -- she lied. Twice. It was only when they heard his faint cry that the infant was recovered.”
Tuesday night, defense Lucas Wiley, in an interview with News Center 7′s Sean Cudahy, issued the following statement:
"Jessica went through a very difficult part of her life at that time. She never meant to intentionally harm the baby. Jessica would want the public to know she’s not a monster or cold-blooded person.
"I can personally attest she is a sweet woman who expressed remorse about what occurred every time I sat and talked to her. She made some very bad decisions and understands she must face the consequences.
“Jessica will work to better herself while incarcerated and will look forward to seeing her two teenage boys in the future. She is very thankful friends have taken steps to adopt the baby. He is in a loving home and he is healthy and happy.”
Cox Media Group
