BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – A Tonawanda woman was charged Tuesday with murdering her newborn son in her boyfriend's home last October.
A grand jury indicted Andee Wright with two counts of second degree murder. The two counts are based on different legal theories.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said Wright, 30, gave birth to a boy at her boyfriend's home in Tonawanda while her boyfriend was away from home. When he returned home, he recognized she was in medical distress and she was taken to the hospital.
A short time later, the boy was found dead inside of a garbage bag in the basement of the home.
Neither Wright's boyfriend or a friend he was with are considered suspects in the boy's death.
"This may be the worst case I have seen my almost five years in the DA's office," Flynn said.
A central point in this case will be whether or not the baby was alive at the time of his death. Without giving specifics on the testing done to determine whether the baby was alive, Flynn said his office determined the baby was alive. If the baby was dead at the time of birth, she could not have been charged with its murder.
Charges in this case took nearly a year to come down because of various testing done to determine if the baby was alive.
"I'm not going to get into details as to how soon after it came out of the womb but when I say quick, it was quick," Flynn said.
Flynn said it was not an attempted late-term abortion.
Wright's attorney, Paul Dell, called the event a tragedy.
"We're taking this one step at a time," Dell said.
Typically, alleged murderers are remanded and cannot post bail. However, bail was set for Wright at $75,000.
"There are probably certain segments of society that would have sympathy for the mother here," "I don't know if it was an unwanted pregnancy…I don't really care, quite frankly. All I know is that I'm alleging the baby was born alive and right after the baby was born alive, she killed this baby. If someone wants to have some kind of sympathy for this mother, I'm not going to tell you you can't have sympathy. You can have your sympathy. My sympathy is for the little baby."
No future court date has been scheduled yet.
