Woman Who Threw Her Newborn Baby Out the 7th Floor of an Apartment Gets Just 10 Years in Prison

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 20, 2017   |   7:41PM   |   New York, NY

A New York state woman who admitted to throwing her newborn daughter out of a seventh-story window will serve 10 years in prison for the crime.

The Journal News reports Jennifer Berry, 35, of Yonkers, New York, killed her newborn daughter on Sept. 28, 2015, hiding the infant’s birth from her boyfriend. Authorities said Berry told him that she had had an abortion and was no longer pregnant.

On Friday, she pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, and will be sentenced to 10 years in prison as part of a plea deal in December, according to the report.

Berry gave birth to her baby girl in the shower of her boyfriend’s Bronx apartment in 2015, according to authorities. Officials said she dropped the baby out of a seventh-story window, and later told them that the baby was not breathing at the time.

Police said when they found the infant’s body, her umbilical cord still was attached. Later, an autopsy determined that the baby was alive when her mother dropped her out the window to her death, the report states.

Authorities said Berry’s boyfriend did not know anything about the baby’s birth.

“A baby girl had barely come into the world when she died in a concrete courtyard,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark said in a statement. “The killing of an innocent baby by her mother is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable.”

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Struggling new mothers have so many resources available to help them and their babies, including pregnancy resource centers, adoption agencies and safe haven laws. While none of these options are easy, they all are life-affirming, loving options for the child and mother.

Desperate new mothers can take advantage of their state’s safe haven law, which allows women to surrender their newborns at a police station or hospital without fear of prosecution. All 50 states have some form of a safe haven law.

Earlier this month, a newborn baby safely was surrendered in an Indiana baby box through its safe haven law.

The United States does not keep statistics about the number of babies saved through safe haven laws, but experts have estimated the number to be in the thousands. Between 2004 and 2011, about 50 infants in Texas alone were surrendered under its safe haven law, according to the Dallas Morning News.

If you or someone you know would like more information about relinquishing a newborn baby, please call 1-866-99BABY1 or go to www.SafeHavenLaw.com.