Convicted of drowning newborn, admits she knew of Safe Haven program
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From: J. on 2 Oct 2008 18:33 Coon Rapids woman convicted of drowning newborn in Burnsville in 2005 Jurors reject claim abusive boyfriend forced her actions By Frederick Melo fmelo(a)pioneerpress.com Article Last Updated: 10/01/2008 12:12:55 AM CDT Samantha Heiges told police that, under threat of violence, she was forced to drown her newborn daughter in the bathtub of her Burnsville apartment. It was not her fault, she said her abusive boyfriend made her kill the baby, Sydney, and then he tossed the body down the trash chute. A jury Tuesday called her actions murder. After brief deliberations, the Dakota County District Court jury found the 22-year-old Coon Rapids woman guilty of intentional second-degree murder. Authorities believe Sydney was killed May 5, 2005, in the Burnsville apartment complex where Heiges lived with then-boyfriend Erik Matlock, the father of the baby, whose body was never recovered. The jury threw out a lesser charge of manslaughter, which hinged on the theory that Heiges was coerced into killing the newborn. As a result of the more serious conviction, Heiges faces a presumptive sentence of 25 1/2 years in prison. She will be sentenced Dec. 12 at the courthouse in Hastings. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom called the case dramatic, and not just because of its brutality. Without a body, prosecutors were forced to comb through Heiges' and Matlock's contradictory accounts of what happened. They found scant physical evidence, except for one swab of blood taken from the apartment bathroom in early 2007, nearly two years after the crime. Sydney's remains are believed to be in the Pine Bend Landfill in Inver Grove Heights, buried under thousands of tons of compacted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- waste. "It's not easy to prove murder without a body, but it can be done," Backstrom said. In the end, prosecutors relied on the surprise addition of a star witness, who testified Monday. Backstrom said that an hour after the prosecution called what was scheduled to be its last witness last week, the county attorney's office received an unusual phone call. An Eagan police officer recalled that an Argosy University student contacted police in April 2005, before the couple's baby was born. She had claimed Heiges had told her the murder plans in full. Heiges and her boyfriend planned to go to a cabin in northern Minnesota, kill the baby and bury the body in the woods, said the student, who took the stand Monday. "The witness did not provide adequate information to track (Heiges) down immediately. They had the wrong spelling of her name," Backstrom said. In May 2005, Heiges called the same classmate and told her the baby was dead, though the murder had taken place in her apartment, the witness said. Eagan police caught up with Heiges that November, but she denied she had ever been pregnant, Backstrom said. The case went nowhere. In early 2007, Heiges' new boyfriend, Andrew Baussan, contacted Burnsville police to say Heiges had confided in him about the child's death. An investigation began anew. Heiges' attorney, Deborah Ellis, said the last-minute testimony from the Argosy classmate helped clinch the case for the prosecution. "It came as a surprise," Ellis said. "It was tough to fully investigate this person's story, given the late disclosure. That was a big boost to the prosecution's case." Ellis said Heiges, who is living with her family in Anoka County, is "in shock." She said she'll ask the judge for leniency during her sentencing hearing in December. Matlock, 23, of Blaine, goes on trial Dec. 8 on the charge of aiding an offender in a second-degree murder. If convicted, he faces nearly 13 years in prison. He has maintained he was not physically abusive and never saw Sydney after she was born. Backstrom said no matter how desperate Heiges and Matlock were to avoid being parents, there was a simple alternative. The Safe Place for Newborns program allows parents to leave babies at hospitals within 72 hours of delivery without being prosecuted, as long as the child has not been abused. The program was initiated in Dakota County in early 2000 and enacted statewide six months later. Heiges told authorities she had been aware of the program, Backstrom said. Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172. http://www.twincities.com/ci_10603648?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www..twincities.com |