Posted on 10/16/2005 1:21:23 PM PDT by wagglebee
It's been three years since Terry Ashcraft of Billings last spoke to his daughter, the 21-year-old University of Southern California student accused of leaving her newborn son to die in an alley behind a popular bar in Los Angeles.
So Ashcraft was as shocked as anyone when he learned of the allegations against Holly Ashcraft - a pretty honor roll graduate of West High who reportedly attended USC on a full scholarship.
If I could say something that would enlighten things, I would do that, Terry Ashcraft said outside his home Friday. All I can really say about it is this: I love her. She's one hell of a good kid, and I'm puzzled. I don't understand it.
Police in Los Angeles say Holly Ashcraft was arrested Wednesday, three days after an anonymous tipster called 911 to report finding the newborn in an alley behind a bar popular with USC students. When officers arrived, they found the child's body lying in a cardboard box next to a trash bin. The boy's umbilical cord was still attached, suggesting a medically unattended birth.
Ashcraft was charged with murder and a felony count of child abuse. If convicted, she would face 25 years to life in prison.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge raised her bail from $1 million to $2 million, upholding a request by prosecutors who described her as a flight risk.
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, and police spokesman Officer Jason Lee declined to disclose how police tied Ashcraft to the birth. But police told the owner of the building where the bar was located - and where Ashcraft lived in a second-floor apartment - that she was linked to the case after seeking medical treatment, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Times also reported that Ashcraft was a full-time student in her third year. She was suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case, the newspaper said.
Ashcraft was scheduled to appear for arraignment Nov. 9.
An attorney representing Ashcraft said people shouldn't rush to judgment.
A lot of information is yet to come, Paul Wallin, of the criminal defense firm Wallin and Klarich, said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. We're hoping the ultimate result will be a positive one for our client.
Results of an autopsy performed on the child this week will not be available for at least a month, though police said the child was born full-term and alive.
A California law allows mothers to surrender newborns to hospital emergency rooms and some fire stations with no questions asked and no legal repercussions. Montana has a similar law allowing a parent to surrender a newborn baby to emergency services providers, such as hospitals, fire departments or law enforcement agencies. The child is then put up for adoption.
Terry Ashcraft was separated from Holly's mother for some time before they divorced in 2000 or 2001. It's been years since he lived under the same roof with his daughter, whom he described as very bright, athletic and very upbeat.
He did not know whether his daughter was pregnant and said he hasn't heard from Holly or her mother, who lives in Washington state, since Holly's arrest. What little he knows about the case has come from monitoring media reports, he said.
There's so much confusion right now, Terry Ashcraft said. I'm confused; there's confusion in Southern California. There's so much going on down there that I don't know about that I just don't want to comment.
Terry Ashcraft said his home telephone and cell phone had been ringing off the hook on Thursday and Friday, mostly from concerned relatives and friends. He would not be able to visit his daughter for at least two weeks, he said.
Wallin said he had more than 35 media inquiries about the case Friday, including calls from People and Time magazines, Good Morning America and Today. But Wallin said family members who have come to Southern California to support Ashcraft won't be doing any interviews.
Everyone should be respectful, Wallin said. She has the support of her entire family.
Wallin and partner Steve Klarich will team up for Ashcraft's defense. The firm has offices across Southern California and has been in business since 1981. Wallin said he has provided legal analysis on MSNBC during high-profile trials, including the recent Michael Jackson trial.
His daughter is not a "good kid," she is a selfish and amoral murderer.
Moral absolutes ping.
Most likely a product of either a home where little or no ethical/moral/religious teaching took place, or brainwashed by public schooling or a mix of the two. Now there's a dead baby, along with a woman with a dead conscience. More nightmares to come for this family.
How odd. He hasn't seen or spoken to her for three years, yet he feels competent to tell us she's a "good kid." Utter nonsense. This is not worth reading, frankly.
His daughter is not a "good kid," she is a selfish and amoral murderer.
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Seriously. She has no excuse, in these days of abortion on demand along with the CA Law of being able to abandon your baby, no strings attached. Yech.
A little compassion here.. if she had what the article described as a "medically unattended delivery", she was probably in agony for hours, scared out of her mind, and desperate as hell.
My main question is where were her friends? Where were the other adults is her life that had to have noticed her condition? Women under the best of circumstances have often found childbirth a harrowing and painful experience, much more so if a kid was alone and terrified.
There is way more to this story here, and I don't think any of it will reflect well on her friends and family...
She was in college, I'm sure the University of Southern California has a top-notch health clinic with doctors more than capable of delivering a baby. Make any excuse you want, it was her selfishness that caused this, the only compassion I feel is for her murdered child.
I said it before and Ill say it again
ONE OF THE WORST THINGS IS THAT THERE ARE SO MANY LOVING AND KIND PEOPLE WHO WANT BABIES AND CANT HAVE EM BUT GARBAGE LIKE THIS CAN PLOP EM OUT
She had an out if she would have just took it to a hospital but she couldnt be bothered...burn the b***h
Next time use some birth control
A little compassion here.. if she had what the article described as a "medically unattended delivery", she was probably in agony for hours, scared out of her mind, and desperate as hell.
Gee if only there was like hospitals or something she could have went too
She's one *itch on her way to hell.
Separation of Church and Reality crowd ping.
Let's hear the smarmy skanky liberal jargon again about how
"you can't legislate morality." [IRONY]
"How odd. He hasn't seen or spoken to her for three years, yet he feels competent to tell us she's a "good kid." Utter nonsense. This is not worth reading, frankly."
I missed that ... yeah for three years he had NO time for her. I'm sure he knows her VERY WELL.
LOL!!!
The compassion should be reserved for the child. The mother deserves condemnation for a brutal act of fanticide.
She wasn't a kid- she was 21 years old, an adult by any standard. She was in Los Angeles, where she had many options. She could have left the baby at a safe haven, anything. Instead she murdered her newborn baby- how could she do it while holding her own child in her arms, a living, breathing being I will never understand.
Yup...real "human interest" angle here.
If he loves her so much, why hasn't he spoken to her in over three years?
Had she had paid the professional killers to do the pre born child in...she would have no problems...
Just an incredibly sad story for all involved, but this precious baby did NOT have to die in an alley behind a bar, this lady had so many options available to her.
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