U.S.

Infant Death Mom Released

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 10, 2000 / 12:41 PM EDT / CBS

Amy Grossberg, the Delaware college student who pleaded guilty to killing her newborn son, left prison Wednesday, eight months before completing her sentence. She was released early for time served prior to her sentencing and for good behavior.

Grossberg, who was sentenced in July 1998 to serve 2½ years for manslaughter in the death of the baby, was escorted out of the Baylor Women's Correctional Facility and got into a Jeep Cherokee in which her parents were waiting. She did not speak to reporters.

Peter LaTang, who prosecuted Grossberg and boyfriend, Brian Peterson, told CBS Radio News that he hopes they have both learned a lesson, and hopefully this will teach others a lesson as well.

Corrections Officer Dora Hairston, who accompanied Grossberg out, said Grossberg told her thank you before leaving.

"She was well-behaved. She did not have any institutional write-ups while she was here," said Beth Welch, spokeswoman for the Department of Correction. "She was a good prisoner."

She worked as a janitor and took classes while she was incarcerated, including 21 credits of college correspondence courses. Grossberg will be on probation for two years and must serve 300 hours of community service at home in New Jersey.

Grossberg and Peterson, the infant's father, were college freshmen three years ago when they went to a Newark, Del., hotel room near Grossberg's University of Delaware campus and delivered a baby boy.

The baby was found wrapped in plastic in a trash bin in the motel parking lot.

The couple said in court that they believed the baby was delivered stillborn, but the medical examiner said the infant died of skull fractures.

Prosecutors initially said they would seek the death penalty against the teenage sweethearts. The pair, both from the wealthy suburban enclave of Wyckoff, N.J., appeared in early court hearings holding hands.

But their defense strategies soon set them against each other. Peterson pleaded guilty in March 1998 and was given a 2 year sentence, after he cooperated with prosecutors in Grossberg's trial.

He left prison after 18 months.