Posted on 03/02/2006 12:20:54 AM PST by grundle
Feb. 28, 2006
Judge hands down 10-year sentence in landfill baby case
CARSON WALKER
Associated Press
ELK POINT, S.D. - A former Alcester woman who put her newborn baby in trash that ended up in a Nebraska landfill was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum of 10 years in prison.
Lori Schultz, 21, pleaded guilty Jan. 4 in Union County court to second-degree manslaughter.
At that hearing, she said she was afraid of how her boyfriend would react, so after she gave birth to the boy on Feb. 2, 2004, she wrapped him in towels and a garbage bag and put him in a trash can.
A volunteer searcher found the body April 5, 2004, at a Jackson, Neb., landfill west of Sioux City, Iowa.
In a packed courtroom, Schultz cried as she stood in front of the bench and spoke to the judge before sentencing. She said she was sorry and that she could have prevented it, but still has dreams of going to college and becoming a veterinary assistant.
"The pain inside of me will be inside of me for the rest of my life. I know my baby is supposed to be 2 years old but he's not because I made a terrible mistake. I want the opportunity to help others. I'm embarrassed and ashamed to go in public because I know people know what happened," she said.
Schultz has been living with her parents near Merrill, Iowa, and was taken into custody to be transferred to the women's prison in Pierre.
Circuit Judge Steven Jensen said Schultz will have to serve at least four years before being eligible for parole.
He entered an interim sentence Tuesday and will make a final judgment after considering how much Schultz must repay for costs related to the criminal case.
Three women who know Schultz testified that she is kind, honest, respectful, caring, reliable, fun loving, positive and a hard worker.
Jensen said he took that into consideration and doesn't believe Schultz will need more healing than rehabilitation but had to impose the maximum of 10 years because of the severity of the crime.
"You've indicated that you saw signs of movement. You saw and heard a whimper from the child. And in spite of those signs of life you wrapped the child up and put the child in the trash can," he told Schultz.
"The question that goes through the court's mind is how could you have done that?"
Chief Deputy Attorney General Mark Barnett said the baby's death was a waste of life.
"We'd be shocked if he was 1, and yet because he was one day and didn't have a name or a cute outfit it seems somehow different," he said. "What she has confessed to is murder, plain and simple."
Barnett said he feels sorry for Schultz and her family but also for the boy.
"He would be 2 years and a month. He should be sitting on his mother's lap with his arms around his mommy's neck, and he should have a name," he said. "Yet he is in a grave and there's no name on his grave."
Barnett said he hopes Schultz is honest in her testimony against the boy's father, Paul Alan Lundberg. He was indicted earlier this month on four counts of accessory to a felony and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
The couple shared a home in Alcester, where the baby was born.
Defense attorney James McCulloch said the killing was out of character for Schultz. He portrayed her as a good person who made bad decisions done to protect her relationship with Lundberg and keep him from leaving her.
"The problem is she picked the wrong relationship to protect. Her priorities got screwed up through love or whatever you want to call it," he said.
Jensen said he hopes the maximum sentence serves as a deterrent to others.
"If this court were to do anything less than 10 years, it would be a message to you, Miss Schultz, as well as to society that life doesn't have a lot of value. And that's not a message that this court can send," he said.
"You obviously made a lot of bad decisions over a number of months and you're going to have to live with those. Perhaps that's the greatest punishment to be imposed on you."
Speaking as a father with only one surviving child:
That's not good enough.
Anyone stupid enough to do this, is stupid enough to do it again.
She doesn't need to be punished, she needs to be spayed.
i agree
You're wrong. First she needs to be spayed and then she needs to spend a lot longer than four years behind bars. And I guarantee you they will let her out on the first possible day she's eligible.
ping
Yeah. I know...
No, not because you made a mistake, but because you killed him.
Every time a murderer uses the word "mistake" in their own defense, they should have another ten years slapped onto their sentence...
Aw, why so hard on the poor gal. She was just a couple days too late.
See this is why I could never be a judge.
Some waste of skin like this would stand in front of me crying about making a mistake and how she wants to help people and I'd just snap and shoot the bitch right between the eyes.
Then I'd adjourn for lunch.
L
A million "mothers" kill their babies every year with the approval of "friends",and government.Do you doubt evil rules the land?
Indeed it does.
And we need to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson when he contemplated the wrath to come on another social evil: "Indeed I fear for my country when I consider that G-d is just and His judgments are terrible" (not sure if the words are just so but you get the idea.)
This makes me wonder how many others do the same thing and are never caught.
Being a new father myself...this type of story sickens me. It breaks my heart first of all. To think a tiny helpless baby being thrown out with the trash. It's the most horrible thing you can think of. After the heartbreak wears off...then there's rage. This is certainly murder, not manslaughter!
Wouldn't want her near my cat, but she could probably make use of her skills at any of our local abortion mills.
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