A trial date has been set for 30-year-old Nicole C. DeJaynes, the town of Clay woman indicted for second-degree murder in connection with the death of her newborn daughter discovered Jan. 6, 2010, in a trash bin in the village of Liverpool. DeJaynes also faces a charge of first-degree manslaughter.
Last week, County Judge Anthony Aloi scheduled her trial to start at 10:30 a.m. July 9.
DeJaynes and her defense attorney, Thomas W. Ryan, appeared in County Court on Feb. 14. First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio represented the prosecution.
On Jan. 11, Aloi had offered the defendant a sentence of 15 years in prison in return for pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter rather than to stand trial for murder, but DeJaynes rejected the offer.
On Feb. 14, Aloi ruled that the grand jury heard evidence sufficient to support the murder and manslaughter charges lodged against he defendant.
If convicted of second-degree murder, DeJaynes could be imprisoned for 25 years to life.
In court last week Trunfio addressed the possibility that the defendant may deny she gave birth to the baby whose corpse was found in the trash. In that case, Trunfio said he’d ask Aloi to order a DNA sample taken from DeJaynes. Aloi agreed that if she denies she’s the dead baby’s mother, he would order the DNA sample.
When DeJaynes was interviewed by police On Jan. 13, 2010, however, she admitted she gave birth to the baby. She was arrested the next day. Later she told her lawyer the baby was hers, but denied suffocating the infant which she believed was stillborn.
On the night of Jan. 6, 2010, a the dead body of an infant girl was found wrapped in a towel in one of two Waste Management trash bins at the Pearl Street Apartments parking lot. Investigators later determined that the baby had been born at the adjacent Hiddenbrook Terrace apartments. DeJaynes subsequently told them she had been visiting a friend’s apartment there.
Prior to the mother’s arrest, the Liverpool Police Department named the baby Isabella Marie.
DeJaynes, who lists her address as 4336 Forestbrook Drive, off Morgan Road in Clay, remains held without bail at the Corbett Justice Center in Syracuse.
