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, from Twin Falls, was sentenced to a year of probation and ten hours of community service, KTVB reported. Newberry was 18 years old when she was arrested, and police said she had failed to report the death of her newborn baby.
“The probable cause affidavit, obtained by KTVB, said Newberry had given birth to the baby in her bathroom after hiding the pregnancy from her family,” according to the report. “Court documents show Newberry never alerted law enforcement between the time she dropped off the baby at the baby box and being contacted by investigators after the baby was found dead.”
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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 were created to deter parents from abandoning their newborns in unsafe conditions, potentially leaving them to die. Baby boxes are temperature-controlled incubators often built into exterior walls of fire stations, police stations, and hospitals that can be accessed from inside. At-risk mothers can safely and legally place their newborns inside. Once the baby is inside the baby box, the outside door locks, and the mother has time to leave before an alarm goes off, alerting first responders or hospital staff to the child’s presence.
The baby is then quickly removed and sent to a hospital for a wellness check. From there, the baby is usually placed into state custody and is often quickly adopted.
In Idaho, healthy, unharmed infants up to 30 days old may be surrendered to baby boxes or face-to-face to hospitals, fire stations, EMS providers, physicians, and nurses, according to Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
