Woman Convicted of First-Degree Murder of Newborn

Woman Convicted of
First-Degree Murder of Newborn

April 7, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Joe Scott, Director of Communications
Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Jane Robison, News Secretary
(213) 974-3525

PASADENA – A woman who threw her newborn daughter over a fence and down a concrete embankment to railroad tracks in Alhambra was convicted by a Superior Court jury today of first-degree murder.

Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian of the Family Violence Division said the jury in Pasadena was out a day and a half before convicting 43-year-old Tonya Mae Schaefer of the first-degree murder charge and a second count of assault on a child causing death. Sentencing was scheduled for April 30 by Judge Teri Schwartz, who presided over the trial. Schaefer faces a state prison term of life with the possibility of parole.

The newborn girl, umbilical cord still attached, was wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown down a concrete embankment to railroad tracks south of Mission Road near Fremont Avenue in Alhambra. Balian said it was determined after an autopsy that the newborn died from blunt force trauma to the head.

The baby’s body was found by a Union Pacific Railroad employee on March 12, 2006. A tip in September 2006 led police to the defendant, who was established as the biological mother through DNA. The biological father was found a month later. He had ended his relationship with the defendant and had not known she was pregnant, authorities said.

Schaefer was arrested in late November 2006 and has remained in custody since then on a little more than $1 million bond.

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