Bronx DA: Woman Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Death of Newborn Baby Girl

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER IN DEATH OF NEWBORN BABY GIRL; WILL GET 10 YEARS IN PRISON

Defendant Dropped Infant from Apartment Window

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a woman has pleaded guilty to first-degree Manslaughter and will be sentenced to ten years in prison for dropping her newborn infant from a seventh-floor University Heights apartment window, resulting in the child’s death.

District Attorney Clark said, “A baby girl had barely come into the world when she died in a concrete courtyard. The killing of an innocent baby by her mother is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Now the defendant will serve 10 years in prison.”

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Jennifer Berry, 35, of 177 Gailmore Drive, Yonkers, pleaded guilty today before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy to first-degree Manslaughter. As part of the plea agreement, Berry will be sentenced on December 14, 2017, to ten years in prison followed by five years post-release supervision.

According to the investigation, on September 28, 2015, Berry dropped her newborn infant from the seventh-floor window of a building on West 183^rd Street shortly after giving birth in the bathroom of an apartment where she was staying. The infant’s body was discovered in the courtyard of the building. A medical examiner ruled the child was alive during birth. Berry had previously told her boyfriend she had obtained an abortion.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Astrid Borgstedt, Trial Counsel of the Child Abuse/ Sex Crimes Bureau under the supervision of Rachel Ferrari, Chief of the Child Abuse/Sex Crime Bureau and the overall supervision of Joseph Muroff, Chief of the Special Victims Division.