Mother hoped for baby's death in trash bin, police say

The newborn girl survived about 16 hours in a plastic bag, tied shut, covered with trash, before she was found alive.

[Times photo: James Borchuck] Stephanie Smith leaves the hospital and is taken to jail, where she is being held on an attempted murder charge.

By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 7, 2002

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ST. PETERSBURG -- The mother of a newborn baby left the child in a city trash can for about 16 hours, hoping the infant would die and then be removed by a garbage truck, St. Petersburg police say.

Stephanie Smith, 23, told officers she wanted "the child to die and be taken away via sanitation truck, thereby allowing the birth of the child to remain a secret," according to a police report.

Smith was charged Monday with attempted murder. Late Tuesday afternoon, she was taken from St. Petersburg General Hospital, where she underwent surgery Monday, to the Pinellas County Jail.

Police initially estimated that the child was born about two hours before neighbors discovered her alive and lying in a heap of trash around noon Monday.

But St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa said Smith told officers she gave birth to the baby around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The baby spent 16 to 17 hours buried in the trash container with little air and no light before she was found.

According to the police report, Smith put the baby in a plastic bag and tied it shut before dumping the girl in a trash bin across from her home at 2625 56th Lane N.

Ann Miller, a spokeswoman for All Children's hospital, where the baby is being kept under observation until next week, said the baby is in good condition.

Smith's brother, Ryan Smith, said the family did not wish to comment on the case.

After neighbors discovered the baby, dubbed "Baby Doe," she was first taken to St. Petersburg General Hospital before being transferred to All Children's.

Dr. Benjamin Torres, a neonatologist at All Children's who is treating the infant, said she is surprisingly healthy despite the unsanitary conditions she was left in. Doctors are treating her with antibiotics as a precaution against possible infections.

Lack of oxygen and extreme heat can sometimes result in brain damage in infants, Torres said.

"Newborns don't tolerate any extremes of temperature very well. For the lungs to work and for the brain to function you have to have oxygen," Torres said. "You have to clear their air passages when they are born. If that doesn't happen the baby turns blue."

Torres said the newborn is lucky to have survived Monday's soaring temperatures and unsanitary conditions.

"Some babies will be able to keep their blood sugar levels up for 24 hours, but that is unusual," he said.

Officials with the Department of Children and Families said a Pinellas County court must decide within 24 hours of the baby's discovery whether Smith will retain parental rights over the abandoned baby.

"The (Pinellas County) Sheriff's Office is working with the State Attorney's Office to see if the child needs to be sheltered -- that is, placed with a relative or nonrelative. There are specific shelter homes and foster parents that take newborn babies," said Shawna Donovan, a spokeswoman for the DCF's Tampa office.

Donovan said her office has received several calls from people interested in adopting the baby. But before Baby Doe can find a new home, her case must wend its way through custody proceedings in court.

"It's not the type of situation where the child is going from the hospital to an adopted family. There is a process," Donovan said.

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