A newborn girl was found dead on the night of Jan. 6 in one of two Waste Management trash bins located at the Pearl Street Apartments parking lot in the village, but police now say that the baby was born at the adjacent Hiddenbrook Terrace apartments.
The child’s mother, Nicole DeJaynes, 29, was arrested Friday Jan. 14, and charged with second-degree murder. She had been treated at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse after admitting her involvement on Jan. 13 in a two-page statement to police. St. Joseph’s released her on the evening of Jan. 14, and at about 9 p.m., a social worker found DeJaynes at her mother’s home in Clay and alerted police.
Prior to DeJayne’s arrest, the Liverpool Police Department named the baby Isabella Marie.
In a written statement issued Jan. 19, Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said the county’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Robert Stoppacher, had determined that suffocation was the cause of death. The case will now be reviewed by a grand jury.
Forensic evidence that Stoppacher gathered at the newborn’s autopsy indicated the baby was alive after birth, Fitzpatrick said.
On Jan. 13, the day before her arrest, DeJaynes had admitted to investigators that she disposed of her daughter in a Pearl Street dumpster. “She indicated she acted alone,” Fitzpatrick said.
LPD Sgt. Michael Manns said last Friday that others may have been involved.
“We’re reviewing more information about other people and their potential involvement,” Manns said. “This investigation is by no means over.”
DeJaynes’ criminal record indicates that she has been arrested in the past for minor offenses, Manns said, but no convictions were noted. First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio said that DeJaynes, who also has a 5-year-old son, has had a history with Child Protective Services.
Manns confirmed that the mother admitted to giving birth at Hiddenbrook Terrace apartments where she had apparently been visiting friends along with her 23-year-old boyfriend, Zach Prouty.
Prouty’s father, Greg Prouty of Baldwinsville, said that his son had been dating DeJaynes for no more than seven months.
On Jan. 11, Syracuse Police officers arrested Zach Prouty on previous charges of possession of a hypodermic instrument and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
DeJaynes’ defense attorney, Thomas Ryan, told a reporter that she gave birth alone. “As far as she could tell, the child was not alive,” Ryan said.
Liverpool Police Chief Bill Becker discussed the case at the Jan. 17 Village Board meeting. Mayor Gary White, a former deputy chief of the Syracuse Police Department, said that he’d seen many similar cases during his 20-plus years of policing. “But the vast majority of cases, there’s no resolution,” White said. “So it’s very gratifying to see our officers bring this investigation to a successful conclusion so quickly.”
The mayor commended the LPD, Chief Becker and the other agencies which assisted in the probe via the county’s Major Felony Unit.
