Woman found not guilty in Ore. baby-death trial

Angelica Swartout, center, stands between her defense attorneys Gordon Mallon, left, and Eve Oldenkamp during a news conference Thursday, May 31, 2012 in Eugene, Ore. A jury took less than two hours to acquit Swartout, who was on trial for the second time on allegations that she killed her newborn son, in a case in which no remains were found and defense attorneys argued the woman was never pregnant. / Brian Davies,AP Photo/The Register-Guard

(AP) EUGENE, Ore. - A jury took less than two hours Thursday to acquit an Oregon woman on trial for the second time on allegations that she killed her newborn son, in a case in which no remains were found and defense attorneys argued the woman was never pregnant.

Angelica Swartout's first trial ended earlier this year in a hung jury. Jurors in that trial said they were one vote shy of a unanimous guilty verdict, the Eugene Register-Guard reported.

In both trials, the 25-year-old former hotel clerk from Springfield stood in the witness stand and pushed out her stomach to demonstrate how she faked a pregnancy.

Swartout recanted a confession to police, testifying that after she got a false positive result on a pregnancy test, she pretended to be expecting because she became an "instant favorite" in a large adoptive family in which she had felt ignored.

She said she falsely told her family and friends that she delivered a stillborn son at a local hospital.

Swartout told police in December 2010 she delivered the child in a bathroom at her workplace, suffocated it and put it in a garbage container. But officers searched a landfill extensively and found no remains.

The jury heard conflicting testimony from doctors about whether Swartout's body showed signs that a child had been delivered.

Prosecutor Bob Lane relied heavily on Swartout's confession, telling the jurors in his closing argument they had heard the woman "say that this was a real baby and that, for whatever reason, she ended its life."

Swartout said she confessed because she was stressed and sleep-deprived. A defense expert witness said Swartout had a compliant personality and was "committed to a narrative about pregnancy."

Defense Attorney Gordon Mallon told jurors that Swartout was so embraced by her family that after a second pregnancy test at a Planned Parenthood office, she began living "two different lives" — pregnant to family and family friends, and not pregnant among co-workers, lovers and other friends.

He showed photos of Swartout that suggested her belly was smaller in September 2010 than it had been in July.

[bodettes]

Total waste of taxpayers' money. An examination at the hospital will tell if she was ever pregnant or delivered a baby. Why did they not check that out first? Was she so called "compliante" but not "co-operative" How could this go so far?

[swtaprl]

The article says that the jury heard conflicting testimony from medical personnel about whether her body showed signs of delivery. This means that they did examine her, probably more than once, and could not tell decisively one way or the other.

[two-cats]

This story is disturbing. There is national hysteria on the subject of pregnancy...so much so, that this case was brought to trial without enough evidence. That a young woman would feel compelled to invent a pregnancy to gain family acceptance is sad and sick. Obviously, this young woman needs psychological counselling or something. Her attitude about truthfulness and motherhood is off the charts.

[Flippycanoo]

Whatever she did or did not do, she is a compulsive liar. So I don't know why they are all smiling gleefully in the photo. What an idiot.

[mari1963]

And where is the father of this baby?

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

If she's innocent she's at least a total idiot.