Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 22, 1993                   TAG: 9306220281
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY

Catherine L. Cochran did her best to hide her condition from her classmates at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. As she neared full term, she stayed away from Buena Vista where her mother lived.

"I was afraid of hurting her any more, afraid of what she might think," Cochran later told police.

After giving birth to a stillborn boy in her dormitory room March 17, Cochran drove across town and placed the body in a garbage can outside the McDonald's restaurant on Plantation Road.

Monday, Cochran pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of improperly disposing of a human body.

Ellen S. Weiman, a substitute judge in Roanoke County General District Court, withheld a formal finding of guilt and continued the case until Nov. 22.

In the meantime, Weiman ordered Cochran to perform 150 hours of community service and to continue counseling.

Cochran did not speak during her brief court appearance. She sat with her eyes closed and head bowed as a prosecutor and her attorney argued whether she deserved to go to jail.

Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney F.W. "Skip" Burkart said the case was "disturbing" because of the manner in which the infant's body was discarded.

Burkart said that Cochran should spend time in jail in addition to continuing with counseling. He recommended a six-month sentence with the "bulk" of time suspended.

Robert Lanier, a Buena Vista attorney representing Cochran, argued that his client had suffered enough.

"Jail time is not the answer," he said. "She's being punished at this moment."

When the infant's body was found March 18, Roanoke County Police pursued what they thought could be a homicide. But an autopsy showed the baby boy had been stillborn and probably would not have lived even if the mother had sought proper medical attention.

A tip led police to Cochran a month after the body was found.

Cochran readily confessed, telling police that she had intended to have the child in the delivery room. But after contractions began while she was in class, she went to her dormitory room in the hospital.

Cochran never told police why she discarded the body.