14 DAY TRIAL // A woman setting up her child to freeze to death by leaving him on a country road has been sentenced, report say.
32-year-old Katie Stockton of Illinois will be serving out a 50 year sentence, Gossipy reports. The sentence follows an admission of guilt in the 2004 murder case.
On December 17, 2004, Stockton gave birth to the child that would be named Crystal, unbeknownst of her family and friends.
She delivered the baby, then placed her in a bag and left it by the side of the road. The girl was found dead 99 feet (30 meters) from her parents' Rockton home.
She was arrested in 2009 when police were able to match her DNA to that found on a cigarette butt recovered at the scene.
A search of her vehicle which was stored in an impound lot revealed the remains of two other children in her trunk.
“I was in a very dark place for many years. [...] I apologize to those I hurt and ask forgiveness. I’m truly sorry for the pain and hurt they have endured,” she told Judge John Truitt after sentencing.
“You did the incomprehensible. [...] You gave birth, by all accounts, to a healthy, full-term baby girl and you chose to play judge, jury and executioner and put her by the roadside like yesterday’s garbage,” he responded.
The defense tried to prove a lapse in judgment motivated by Stockton's inability to process the reality of her pregnancy, couple with drug use.
The judge pointed out other means the defendant had at her reach, such as giving the baby up for adoption or dropping her off at a safe haven, The Rockford Register Star informs.
“A mother has taken her child’s life. [...] We agree with Judge Truitt who found this to be a heinous crime as he described it. And I think that’s the way we should look at this. This is an event that should never occur in our community,” DA Joe Bruscato notes.