U.S.

Prom Mom Pleads Guilty

August 20, 1998 / 6:44 PM EDT / AP

In emotionless words delivered in a childlike voice, Melissa Drexler on Thursday described giving birth in a bathroom at her senior prom last year, fishing the newborn out of the toilet, wrapping him in plastic bags and dumping him in the trash.

As her parents sat still and silent, listening to their daughter tell of killing the grandson they never knew was on the way, Drexler pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, sparing herself a murder trial and a possible life sentence.

Drexler, 20, of Lacey Township, accepted a plea bargain that could lead to her release from prison after less than three years.

She admitted to Superior Court Judge John Ricciardi that she was aware of what she was doing when she delivered the baby into a catering hall toilet bowl, and knew that her conduct "would most certainly result in the death of the baby."

However, she made no apology and offered no explanation of her actions in the courtroom packed with reporters from around the country.

"This was a homicide of a totally defenseless human being. This child was born with no deformities, no congenital defects, and could have looked forward to a long and healthy life," Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said afterward.

Kaye said he did not know whether the child was still alive when Drexler removed it from the toilet, but authorities found marks around the child's neck indicating it had been choked.

Although she never gave a statement to authorities, psychiatric reports submitted by her lawyers indicate she was in denial about her pregnancy, Kaye said.

"She felt that being pregnant was a very serious problem, something she was ashamed of and wanted to hide," Kaye said. "She isolated herself. She did not tell her parents. She kept this a secret from her boyfriend. She just denied it."

Assistant Prosecutor Elaine Leschot added that Drexler never expressed remorse for killing her child, although Drexler attorney Steven Secare said outside the courthouse that she appeared emotionless in court because she was nervous.

She knows "it's something she'll have to live with for the rest of her life," Secare told reporters.

"We love her and we stand behind her 100 percent," said Drexler's mother, Maria.

In return for Drexler's guilty plea, prosecutors will recommend that Ricciardi sentence her to no more than 15 years in prison. Kaye said that with credit earned for good behavior, Drexler could be released in just under three years.

Drexler was permitted to remain free until she is sentenced on Oct. 29.

"I knew I was pregnant," she told the judge, reading dispassionately from a handwritten prepared text. "I concealed the pregnancy from everyone. On the morning of the prom, my water broke."

Drexler and her boyfriend, John Lewis, then set out from Lacey's Forked River section for the Garden Manor catering hall in Abrdeen Township. Drexler said she began to have stomach cramps en route.

When they arrived at 7:30 p.m., she went straight to the ladies' room, and delivered a full-term, 6-pound, 6-ounce boy in a stall, strangled him and used a sanitary napkin disposal bin to cut the umbilical cord before tossing the newborn into the trash, prosecutors have said.

"The baby was born alive," she told the judge this morning. "I knowingly took the baby out of the toilet and wrapped a series of garbage bags around the baby. I then placed the baby in another garbage bag and knotted it. I closed it and put it in a trash can.

"I was aware of what I was doing when I placed the baby in the bag, and I was further aware that what I did would most certainly result in the death of the baby," she concluded.