Teh One Who Knocks
01-08-2020, 11:32 AM
Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media
https://i.imgur.com/QFJk6xf.jpg
A Neptune teenager wept Monday as she pleaded guilty to suffocating her newborn son last March and then discarding his body in a dumpster with help from her boyfriend.
Jada McClain, 18, will be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on a first-degree manslaughter charge, with parole eligibility after eight-and-a-half years. Her boyfriend, 19-year-old Quaimere Mohammed, also pleaded guilty Monday, to third-degree desecration of human remains, and will serve up to five years in prison.
Both took plea bargains from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
In court, McClain admitted to delivering the baby alone in her parent’s bathroom alone around 4 a.m. on March 29, about two weeks after she turned 18. She then placed the infant, who she named Legend, on a bed and pressed on his chest until he stopped breathing.
McClain’s attorney, Thomas Catley, said he would seek less prison time at her sentencing, arguing her “extreme youth” played a role in the crime. McClain’s family and friends filled the front row of the court room in her support.
“She is extremely remorseful,” Catley said after the hearing.
https://i.imgur.com/zNf1ej2.jpg
Mohammed admitted that McClain and he spent the evening of March 28, 2019 together, and then he went home and fell asleep.
The next morning, he woke up to texts from McClain saying she had given birth and the baby was not breathing, Mohammed admitted in court. Prosecutors previously said McClain sent Mohammed a message that read “I did it, baby."
McClain picked Mohammed up from his Asbury Park house and informed him that the newborn was in the back seat of the car wrapped in towels, Mohammed admitted. The two drove to the Washington Village Apartments in Asbury Park and threw the baby into a dumpster nearby on Monroe Avenue.
McClain told investigators that she hid her pregnancy from her family. She only told Mohammed, who she met as a sophomore while they were both attending Neptune High School.
"This case is a horrible tragedy. An infant is dead and two young people are going to prison. None of this should have happened. Young persons who are not yet ready for parenthood need to understand that there are safe, legal and completely confidential ways to give up custody of a newborn,” Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said in a news statement.
McClain and Mohammed will officially be sentenced March 20 in front of Judge David F. Bauman.
https://i.imgur.com/QFJk6xf.jpg
A Neptune teenager wept Monday as she pleaded guilty to suffocating her newborn son last March and then discarding his body in a dumpster with help from her boyfriend.
Jada McClain, 18, will be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on a first-degree manslaughter charge, with parole eligibility after eight-and-a-half years. Her boyfriend, 19-year-old Quaimere Mohammed, also pleaded guilty Monday, to third-degree desecration of human remains, and will serve up to five years in prison.
Both took plea bargains from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
In court, McClain admitted to delivering the baby alone in her parent’s bathroom alone around 4 a.m. on March 29, about two weeks after she turned 18. She then placed the infant, who she named Legend, on a bed and pressed on his chest until he stopped breathing.
McClain’s attorney, Thomas Catley, said he would seek less prison time at her sentencing, arguing her “extreme youth” played a role in the crime. McClain’s family and friends filled the front row of the court room in her support.
“She is extremely remorseful,” Catley said after the hearing.
https://i.imgur.com/zNf1ej2.jpg
Mohammed admitted that McClain and he spent the evening of March 28, 2019 together, and then he went home and fell asleep.
The next morning, he woke up to texts from McClain saying she had given birth and the baby was not breathing, Mohammed admitted in court. Prosecutors previously said McClain sent Mohammed a message that read “I did it, baby."
McClain picked Mohammed up from his Asbury Park house and informed him that the newborn was in the back seat of the car wrapped in towels, Mohammed admitted. The two drove to the Washington Village Apartments in Asbury Park and threw the baby into a dumpster nearby on Monroe Avenue.
McClain told investigators that she hid her pregnancy from her family. She only told Mohammed, who she met as a sophomore while they were both attending Neptune High School.
"This case is a horrible tragedy. An infant is dead and two young people are going to prison. None of this should have happened. Young persons who are not yet ready for parenthood need to understand that there are safe, legal and completely confidential ways to give up custody of a newborn,” Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said in a news statement.
McClain and Mohammed will officially be sentenced March 20 in front of Judge David F. Bauman.