Free Republic

BLOOMSBURG – Calling it a crime of deep recklessness, Columbia County President Judge Scott Naus sentenced a mother on Monday to one to three years in jail for placing her newborn infant out of a window in freezing temperatures. Jennifer Killian, 24, of Berwick, was permitted to serve her sentence at the Columbia County Prison while she continues treatment for mental illnesses. Killian’s lawyer, Franklin Kepner Jr., said she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Kepner requested house arrest for Killian, who was sentenced on the charge of endangering the welfare of children. Berwick police said Killian, then 23, gave...

BERWICK (PA)– A lawyer for a woman who is accused of endangering her newborn girl by placing the infant outdoors in frigid temperatures said he plans to investigate her confession to police. Jennifer Lynn Killian, 23, of Berwick, was arrested Nov. 27 shortly after she allegedly admitted to investigators that she placed her newborn in a plastic bag and set the bag outside her Garfield Avenue home minutes after she gave birth on Nov. 22. Police said Killian agreed to the interview with investigators after she was read her Miranda warnings. “I’m aware of the fact that there is a...

BERWICK (PA)- Police allege a 23-year old woman abandoned her newborn infant girl outside her home early Saturday morning. Jennifer Lynn Killian, of Garfield Avenue, who was born in Kingston, was charged with felony counts of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child, and a misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person. She was arraigned early Thursday morning by District Judge Marvin Shrawder in Danville and jailed at the Columbia County Prison for lack of $1 million dollars, police said. Police linked the infant girl to Killian through DNA. According to the criminal complaint: Killian gave birth to...

The baby is taken to a hospital after being found in a bag near a Berwick home. BERWICK (PA) – A newly born baby girl was found abandoned in a plastic shopping bag outside of a Columbia County home on Saturday morning. The baby – born within hours from the time she was deserted – was taken by ambulance to Berwick Hospital and then flown by Life Flight helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, according to Berwick police Chief Francis H. Brennan. The condition of the infant was not immediately known as of late Saturday. The baby wasn’t left...