No early release before Lane County murder trial
Thursday, June 2, 2011
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- A Springfield woman accused of smothering her newborn baby will remain behind bars until her aggravated murder trial in October.
A Lane County Circuit Court judge refused Thursday to allow an early release for 23-year-old Angelica May Swartout.
The Register Guard reports her defense lawyers argued the state lacks evidence. No body was found and there's no medical evidence she was pregnant.
Prosecutors played a video recording of a police interview in which Swartout said she wrapped her newborn son so tightly he stopped breathing. They she put the body in a trash bin at the motel where she worked. A search of a Lane County landfill failed to find remains.
Swartout's family says she told them the baby was stillborn.
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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com
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