Mom accused of putting baby in trash takes plea deal

A Dayton-area mother accused of putting a newborn baby in a trash bag and putting him in a bathroom trash can has changed her plea in the case.

Jessica L. Taylor, 40, entered an Alford plea to an attempted murder charge and then was found guilty of two counts of felonious assault and endangering children. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but generally recognizes that the defendant likely would be found guilty in a trial.

“This defendant was found guilty on every count in the indictment related to the infant,” the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. “We will be filing a sentencing memorandum asking that the defendant be sentenced to a maximum of five years in the penitentiary.”

During the plea hearing in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, Miami Township Det. Daniell Schweickart gave testimony that officers and paramedics arrived at a home Feb. 14, 2019, on an initial call by Taylor’s teenage son, saying that Taylor was bleeding.

Schweickart said when they arrived, they saw signs that a baby had been born.

“They asked if she had delivered a baby and she said no. They asked if she was pregnant, and she said no. And as they were asking these questions, they heard a faint cry, which did sound like a baby crying, so they start looking around and (they) did find a baby,” Schweickart said of officials. “He actually hears something coming from a trash can that was in the bathroom. He picks up the trash can, he sees a trash bag that’s tied, he unties it and finds a baby boy in the trash bag.”

The prosecutor’s office previously said the baby required a lengthy hospital stay but survived.

Schweickart told the court during her testimony that Taylor told authorities later that she thought she had miscarried the baby months before giving birth, that she “blacked out” the entire day she gave birth and may have put the baby in the trash bag to keep it warm.

Taylor told Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman during the hearing that she was entering the Alford plea because it allows her to maintain her innocence, but it also saves her children (who could have been called as potential witnesses) from having to take part in a trial.

Taylor’s attorney, Lucas Wilder, declined comment to the Dayton Daily News after the hearing.