Nicole Kipfmiller is escorted out of the courtroom as she looks back at her family after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter and disposing of a body at the Bay County Circuit Court in Bay City November 30, 2010.BAY CITY — The day her trial was scheduled to begin, a Williams Township teen charged with killing her newborn son has entered into a plea deal in Bay County Circuit Court.
Shortly before noon today,
, 19, appeared before Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran and pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, a 15-year felony, and disposal of a dead body, a 10-year felony. In exchange, Bay County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Nancy E. Borushko agreed to dismiss a count of second-degree murder.
A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for the purposes of sentencing.
As part of the deal, Borushko and defense attorney William A. Brisbois agreed that the minimum sentence will be eight years in prison.
During the hearing, Kipfmiller’s mother and assorted relatives sat in the courtroom, many of them wiping away tears and shaking their heads.
Borushko said that on May 26, 2009, Kipfmiller took a pregnancy test at a clinic and was made aware of the positive results. On Dec. 2, 2009, records show Kipfmiller purchased a home birthing kit over the Internet, Borushko said.
According to Borushko, Kipfmiller and her boyfriend, Zach Lang, began exchanging phone calls and text messages early on the morning of Dec. 10. That afternoon, Kipfmiller searched online for advice on how to sever an umbilical cord and how to stop bleeding after delivering a baby, the prosecutor said.
In the early morning of Dec. 11, 2009, Bay County Sheriff’s deputies found the body of Kipfmiller’s son in a commercial trash container behind Mieske’s Country Market, 2509 W. Midland, near Kipfmiller’s home in the 4800 block of S. Flajole Road.
Nicole Kipfmiller talks to her lawyer William Brisbois after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter and disposing of a body at the Bay County Circuit Court in Bay City November 30, 2010.“She made statements to detectives dealing with the location of the body,” Borushko said. When asked by investigators if her child was born alive, Kipfmiller responded that she “couldn’t think of a reason why it wouldn’t be,” Borushko said.
“The defendant made statements she was alone when she delivered the child and said she threw the baby in a Dumpster at Mieske’s Market,” Sheeran said. “She stated that after he was born she looked at the child for a period of time and placed the child in a box which was found in the Dumpster.”
The judge added that Kipfmiller “had the legal duty to seek assistance for the child she just gave birth to...and to give aid and care to the child she just gave birth to.”
Forensic pathologist
, who performed the autopsy on the baby, previously testified the child was born alive and ruled asphyxiation as the cause of death. He added the baby appeared to have gestated for about 35 weeks, making his birth about a month premature.
As Kipfmiller was being led away by a deputy, a female relative who did not want to give her name shouted, “The father did it. He admitted it.”
Lang, the
, has not been charged in connection with the crime.
Brisbois previously argued DNA evidence recovered from the trash container indicates Lang was present during the delivery. Lang was subpoenaed to give testimony at Kipfmiller’s April preliminary examination, but hired an attorney and refused to testify, Brisbois said in an August hearing.
Sheeran is scheduled to sentence Kipfmiller at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 24.