A former college student has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after giving birth to a baby in a sorority house and then throwing it in the trash.
According to the Associated Press (AP), a jury found 21 year-old Emile Weaver of Clarington, Ohio guilty of aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence after she gave birth to a baby girl in a bathroom at the Delta Gamma Theta sorority at Muskingum University on April 22, 2015.
After giving birth, she put the baby in a plastic trash bag and left it outside the sorority house where it died of asphyxiation.
During the trial, which occurred last month, her sorority sisters spoke about finding the infant’s body in the trash bag.
“I saw a babies foot and the bottom half of the baby,” Madison Bates testified. “Elise [Zimmerman] looked that time, I didn’t look that time and she said she saw the whole baby she said something along the effects that it has hair and eyes and she kind of fell to the ground.”
Weaver claimed that she was in denial about the baby, which paternity tests showed was probably fathered by Logan E. Lucas, and said she believed the baby was already dead when she put it into the trash bag.
Although she initially pleaded not-guilty by reason of insanity, Judge Mark Fleegle found her competent to stand trial. She later changed her plea to not-guilty.
During the trial, Weaver tearfully asked for forgiveness and later wrote a letter to Judge Fleegle asking for clemency; however, the judge said he did not believe she was truly remorseful.
The judge cited evidence such as text messages Weaver sent to the man she thought was the father of the baby that said, “No more baby,” and “taken care of.”
Prosecutors also revealed that Weaver knew all along that she was pregnant and yet engaged in risky behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana because she never intended to keep the child.
Muskingum County Prosecutor D. Michael Haddox told the AP that he was satisfied with the sentence.
“We believe justice has been served as best as humanly possible,” he said.