February 28, 2008

Stephens Sentenced to Prison

Convicted of killing newborn, judge sentences Brooklyn woman to 3 1/3 – 10 years in prison

MINEOLA – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a judge has sentenced convicted baby-killer Erma Stephens to serve three and one-third to ten years in prison. Nassau County Judge George Peck found Ms. Stephens guilty in November of second-degree manslaughter in connection with the December 2006 death of her newborn baby. The judge also found the 35-year-old nanny guilty of tampering with evidence. He acquitted the defendant of second-degree murder.

Ms. Stephens faced a maximum of 19 years in prison, a sentence that District Attorney Rice recommended she receive at Thursday’s sentencing.

In December 2006, Ms. Stephens was arrested and charged with murder after her newborn baby was discovered in a trash bag on the platform of the Hicksville Long Island Rail Road station. The defendant later admitted to police that the baby was hers and that she was the one responsible for abandoning the child at the train station.

“Our job is to provide a voice for the voiceless and we will remain aggressive when it comes to holding people accountable who prey on the most defenseless among us,” said Rice.

Rice said that it was important that her office refused to plea bargain with the defendant and that her case go to trial. Rice said that there were no eyewitnesses to the death of the child and that the defendant never confessed to intentionally killing the baby. Rice also said that the autopsy performed on the child proved to be inconclusive in determining how the child asphyxiated.

“While this was an exceptionally difficult case to prosecute, we owed it to this innocent baby to hold this woman accountable for her actions and to prosecute her to the fullest extent of the law,” said Rice following Thursday’s sentence.

Assistant District Attorney and Bureau Chief of the DA’s Special Victim’s Bureau, Madeline Singas, along with Assistant District Attorney Theresa Tebbett, handled the case for the DA’s Office. Ms. Stephens was represented by Ken Montgomery, Esq., of Brooklyn.