Jurors can see a videotaped statement in which a 20-year-old Streamwood woman says she gave birth to a girl over a toilet and then covered the baby’s mouth, a Cook County judge ruled Wednesday.
Jennifer Sotomayor, who prosecutors say killed her baby in 2003 and concealed the death, tried to block the videotape and other statements she made to police from being admitted as evidence. Her lawyers said she was weak from giving birth and did not understand her rights.
But in the Rolling Meadows courthouse Wednesday, Judge John Scotillo said Sotomayor understood what she was doing.
“She appeared to me to be cognizant of what was going on. Her answers were responsive,” he said.
Sotomayor is accused of first-degree murder and concealing a homicide.
Sotomayor was taking classes at Elgin Community College and living at home when she became pregnant with the girl, though she kept her pregnancy from her parents, she said in the videotape, which was played in court last month.
When Sotomayor gave birth in June 2003, she still didn’t tell her parents. About half a day later, officials said, Sotomayor’s mother discovered a cardboard box with the dead baby inside and then Sotomayor and her family went to the hospital, where officials notified police.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled that the baby died of asphyxiation and the death was a homicide. But Sotomayor’s lawyers said the baby was stillborn.
An independent medical examiner that the defense hired found that there was not enough medical evidence to determine that the baby was born alive, according to court documents.
Also on Wednesday, Sotomayor’s lawyers tried to have her indictment dismissed, saying that the medical examiner’s office lost the baby’s brain and, as a result, Sotomayor did not have access to evidence that could help determine whether the baby was born stillborn or alive.
Scotillo denied that motion as well, ruling that “the value of the brain” in proving Sotomayor’s guilt or innocence “appears to be speculative.”
After the court hearing, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office said there had been a misunderstanding.
The spokeswoman said a portion of the brain decomposed but another portion was preserved and available for examination.
Both prosecution and defense lawyers said they believed the brain was misplaced.
“Our prosecutor had been told by a member of the medical examiner’s staff that the brain was missing,” said Marcy Jensen, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office.
Richard Russo, one of Sotomayor’s lawyers, said “when our independent medical examiner asked where the brain was, it could not be located.”
The case will go to trial in October.
