Posted on 07/08/2024 9:17:08 AM PDT by Morgana
Katarina Jovanovic, a 28-year-old woman from Germany, has been found guilty of manslaughter in the death of her newborn baby girl. After Jovanovic gave birth at home in secret on September 12, she then dropped her newborn daughter out of the apartment window. Prosecutors alleged she committed the crime because she feared motherhood would ruin her career. Jovanovic was sentenced to just seven and a half years in prison.
“The accused was not prepared to put her life plans, especially her professional advancement, on hold for a child,” argued public prosecutor Mareike Hafendoerfer. “That was her decision when the baby was born, and as a result, the criteria for a murder conviction are fulfilled.”
Jovanovic is a lawyer who worked for Porsche Financial Services GmbH. Her attorneys argued that she did not know she was pregnant when she gave birth and was suffering a psychological episode as she held her newborn. They claimed she accidentally dropped the baby but admitted that questions remain about how the baby girl fell 12 feet out the window onto the tarmac below. That’s where passersby found her broken body with a shattered skull and called the police. The baby’s death was ruled to be the result of a traumatic brain injury.
“When she suddenly held the bloody baby in her hands, she was in an exceptional psychological situation,” said Jovanovic’s attorney Malte Höch. “It was an accident, she dropped the baby. How the child ended up over the windowsill remains to be determined.”
In April, during the trial, Jovanovic admitted to dropping her newborn daughter out the window but was unable to explain it to the court. According to reports, she “could no longer remember exactly what happened.” She told the court that she didn’t know she was pregnant, but the prosecution accused her of deliberately hiding the pregnancy, and her recent internet searches showed a strong interest in childbirth. Neighbors also told police that they had noticed a change in her behavior in recent months.
“Nobody noticed that the woman was pregnant. Recently she had changed and was no longer talking to us,” one neighbor said. “We thought she was stressed at work.”
In addition, a psychiatric expert found Jovanovic to be fully responsible for the death of her daughter.
Defense attorneys pushed for a manslaughter conviction rather than homicide but also asked for no more than a three-year sentence for Jovanovic. In the end, the court convicted her of manslaughter, sentencing her to seven and a half years.
Defense attorney Höch said he plans to appeal the ruling.
Manslaughter. Pfffffft. Dropping her newborn out the window was an act of murder!
Hold it. Wasn't that one of the excuses Special Prosecutor Robert Hur cited for letting Traitor Joe off?
HOW FAT WAS SHE THAT SHE COULD HIDE A FULL PREGNANCY???
I worked with a woman who was very thin, really she was a perfect size 6. I worked with her day in and out through 2 pregnancies. It barely showed on her at all. It was astonishing really. I mean, we all knew she was pregnant, but if you did not know and if she had just worn some baggy clothes, even at the end you would not have known it.
And my daughter has friends, I know them too, and that woman is really skinny. She was pregnant and did not know it. Did not know it at all, until she collapsed in pain one night. They thought she had appendicitis.
So, it can happen. Not vouching in any way for this German woman, you understand.
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