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A judge sentenced a woman this week after medical staff discovered her baby girl dead in a Safe Haven Baby Box last year in Blackfoot, Idaho.
Angel Newberry of Twin Falls received a sentence of one year on probation along with ten hours of community service, as reported by KTVB. At the time of her arrest, Newberry was 18 years old, and authorities noted that she did not report her newborn baby’s death.
The probable cause affidavit, which KTVB accessed, detailed that Newberry gave birth in her bathroom while concealing her pregnancy from her family. The court documents indicated that Newberry failed to notify law enforcement from when she left her baby at a baby box to when she was contacted by investigators following the discovery of the deceased infant.
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Newberry was first charged with a felony, but she changed her plea to guilty on Thursday and her charge was demoted to a misdemeanor, per the report.
Baby boxes aim to prevent parents from abandoning newborns in hazardous conditions by providing a safe measure. These boxes are climate-controlled incubators embedded in the outer walls of fire stations, police facilities, and hospitals. They are designed for at-risk mothers to safely and legally place their babies. When the baby is placed inside, the exterior door locks, allowing the mother to leave before an alarm goes off, notifying emergency or hospital personnel of the newborn’s presence.
Once inside, the infant is swiftly taken out and transported to a hospital for a health assessment. Typically, from there, the baby is placed under state care and often quickly adopted.
In Idaho, parents can legally surrender healthy, unharmed infants up to 30 days old to baby boxes or directly to hospitals, fire stations, emergency medical services, and healthcare professionals, as per Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
