THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040552
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The state Court of Appeals has overturned the murder conviction of a Maryland woman found guilty two years ago of killing her newborn baby while visiting a Hampton University dormitory.
Stacy Myers, now 20, was convicted of second-degree murder for placing her newborn daughter in a plastic garbage bag and leaving her on a dormitory's third-floor ledge.
The baby girl was found dead Oct. 26, 1991. Myers, who had been visiting the school from her Bethesda home on homecoming weekend, was found guilty of murder six months later by Hampton Circuit Judge Walter J. Ford. Shortly after her high school graduation, she received a suspended sentence.
The Court of Appeals reversed the conviction last week, saying prosecutors failed to prove that the baby girl was born alive - or if she was, just how she was killed.
In a 2-1 vote, the judges based their ruling on the trial testimony of Leah Bush, the state pathologist who performed the autopsy. Bush concluded that the baby girl was born alive because there was oxygen in her lungs and stomach. However, Bush said the baby could have gulped in the air while still attached to her mother by the umbilical cord.
Under questioning by Myers' attorney, Bush also testified that she couldn't identify the ``real physiological cause'' of the baby's death.
In an eight-page ruling, the judges said prosecutors failed to show that the baby had reached ``an independent and separate existence'' from her mother. Prosecutors also failed to prove the cause of death, the judges ruled.
The case was sent back to Hampton Circuit Court, where prosecutors have the option of trying the case again. Another possibility is that the state attorney general's office, which handled the appeal for prosecutors, could ask for a new hearing before the appeals court.
Myers' attorney, J. Ashton Wray Jr., said Tuesday he had been confident that she would prevail on appeal.
``I felt the law was clearly on our side, so it's not a decision I was surprised at,'' Wray said.
He told Myers the news Monday, Wray said. ``She's put her life together now,'' he said, ``and she's hoping the commonwealth won't decide to retry this.''
Wray said Myers is married and working.
Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Colleen Killilea said Hampton prosecutors haven't determined whether they'll try the case again. Don Harrison, spokesman for the attorney general's office, said lawyers there have yet to decide whether they'll ask for another hearing.
KEYWORDS: MURDER INFANT
VIRGINIA STATE COURT OF APPEALS
by CNB