Alhambra Woman Sentenced to 25 Years to Life in Prison for Killing Her Newborn

Alhambra Woman Sentenced to 25
Years to Life in Prison for Killing Her Newborn

April 30, 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 convicted earlier this month of killing her newborn baby was sentenced today, the District Attorney’s Office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian of the Family Violence Division said Tonya Mae Schaefer, 43, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison by Pasadena Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz.

A Superior Court jury convicted Schaefer on April 7, 2008 of first-degree murder for throwing her newborn daughter over a fence and down a concrete embankment to railroad tracks. Schaefer also was found guilty of a second count, assault on a child causing death.

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.

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.

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