Earlier this year 24-year-old Kimberly Pappas gave birth in a bathroom at her place of employment and then stuffed her baby into a plastic bag. After the discovery, the Michigan mother and baby were sent to the hospital but the child was pronounced dead on arrival. At first Kimberly didn’t admit to murdering her baby and told first responders that she suffered a miscarriage.
The Wayne County medical examiner, Dr. Chantel Njiwaji, found that the newborn died of asphyxiation, and his death was ruled as a homicide because he lived for 20 to 30 minutes before he died. Detective Sgt. Kevin Crittenden said, “She stated that she had been at work, that she had thought she was constipated. After giving birth, Kimberly cut the umbilical cord with a nail clipper from her purse.”
Pappas has pleaded guilty to murder and accepted a plea agreement that calls for nine to 20 years in prison. She had her sentencing hearing today, as a local media outlet reports:
A 26-year-old Wyandotte woman who pleaded guilty to the killing of her newborn baby boy at her job received a nine- to 20-year prison sentence Monday.
Kimberly Pappas was facing possible life behinds bars for the crime in which she was accused of putting her baby in a plastic bag in her office desk drawer at her Redford Township job earlier this year.
Pappas initially was charged with felony murder, premeditated murder and first-degree child abuse in the March 31 incident. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The charges of premeditated, felony murder and child abuse were dismissed against her during the sentencing Monday before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Morrow.
Pappas will get credit for 185 days jail time she has already served.
Pappas apologized Monday to her family for the crime.
“I just want to thank my family,” she said. “The pain and regret I have can’t be put into words.”
Before the young woman spoke, her father addressed her and Morrow, pledging to his daughter his and the family’s support while she is incarcerated and once she is let out of prison.
“We love you and forgive you,” Michael Pappas said. “We will support you with as many visits as we can. Your mother and I encourage you to take care of yourself.”
As LifeNews previously reported, Kimberly was fully aware that she was expecting, felt the baby moving before she gave birth and knew about Michigan’s Safe Haven law, which allows individuals to give up unwanted infants safely, legally and anonymously. Locations that are considered safe are police stations, hospitals, firehouses and rescue squads. These statutes were designed to protect innocent infants from abandonment while simultaneously protecting the lives of their mothers.
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In August, Kimberly appeared in court and looked pale. The woman’s sister, Cassandra Pappas, said, “She was really pale, she had no color to her. That’s when she started blacking out. She started going back in her seat and her head was going back. She was pale white.”
The Detroit News reported that the sisters worked at CEVA Logistics together in Redford Township, and Cassandra said she suspected her sister was pregnant but Kimberly denied it. She explained, “She just said she was gaining weight.” Kimberly contacted her sister the day she killed her baby and said she had an “accident,” which is why Cassandra was called to testify in court.
Frank Arbour from the Redford fire department also testified during court and said that Kimberly bagged her baby and the placenta separately. He explained, “It just struck me as unusual that everything was bagged, separately. You don’t normally see that. She said she was embarrassed that she had had a heavy period and she didn’t want to go to the hospital.”
