082198 Woman, 20, Pleads Guilty in Death of Son She Delivered at '97 New Jersey Prom

• By RONALD SMOTHERS

  FREEHOLD, N.J. -- In a barely audible, childlike monotone that gave little hint of remorse, the 20-year-old woman who delivered her child during her high school prom last year and then placed his body in a trash can pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated manslaughter in the child's death.

  The woman, Melissa Drexler of Forked River, N.J., entered her plea in Superior Court in Monmouth County as part of an agreement that had been in place for more than a month. Her original court date of July 9 had been postponed by Judge John A. Ricciardi.

  Today, Judge Ricciardi first questioned Ms. Drexler extensively to determine whether she understood the import of her decision to plead guilty. Then he formally accepted the plea and set sentencing for Oct. 29. Ms. Drexler has been free on bail, and will remain so until the sentencing.

  Ms. Drexler stood next to her lawyer, Steven Secare, as she read a statement written in a blocky, upright cursive. Spectators had to strain to hear her describe what she did as an 18-year-old on June 6, 1997.

  She said that she had kept her pregnancy a secret from friends and family. Her water broke in the car while she was on her way to the prom at a ballroom of the Garden Manor catering hall in Aberdeen Township.

  "I went to the bathroom and delivered the baby," she said.

  "The baby was born alive.

  I knowingly took the baby out of the toilet and wrapped a series of garbage bags around the baby."

  In matter-of-fact language apparently intended to show the "knowing indifference" that is required for a charge of aggravated manslaughter, she continued:

  "I was aware of what I was doing when I placed the baby in the bag.

  I was further aware that what I did would most certainly result in the death of the baby."

  The Monmouth County Prosecutor, John Kaye, said that although his investigation turned up strong evidence against Ms. Drexler, he had chosen the plea agreement to avoid a trial. Among the reasons, he said inconclusive autopsy evidence of whether the baby was dead or alive at the time of delivery was likely to be bitterly contested by prosecution and defense experts.

  Kaye added that had there been a trial, Ms. Drexler's lawyers had a good chance of winning acquittal on the grounds of "extreme emotional disturbance."

  Aggravated manslaughter carries a 10- to 30-year sentence, but in line with the terms of the plea agreement, Kaye said that he would seek a sentence of 15 years.

  Under New Jersey law, Ms. Drexler would normally have to serve at least five years of that term before becoming eligible for parole, Kaye said. But he said with time off for good behavior, she could serve as little as 35 months in prison.

  Should Ms. Drexler serve 35 months, her imprisonment would last slightly longer than the expected stays of the two figures in another widely publicized infanticide case involving New Jersey teen-agers.

  Last month, Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, two 20-year-olds from Wyckoff, N.J., pleaded guilty in a Delaware court to manslaughter in the death of their infant, whom they threw in a trash bin after he was born on Nov. 12, 1996, in a Newark, Del., motel room.

  Peterson, the first one to strike a deal to cooperate with the prosecution, received a 24-month sentence, while Ms. Grossberg received a 30-month sentence.

  "I think this fits with other sentences in similar cases even though she doesn't show remorse," Kaye said of the Drexler case.

  He said that in his 15 years as county prosecutor there had been 12 other cases of killings of newborns.

  All but one resulted in plea agreements and similar sentences, he said.

  The one exception went to trial in 1987 and the defendant, Patricia Giles, was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum of 30 years.

  Kaye and the senior prosecuting attorney, Elaine Leschot, speculated that a continuing emotional remoteness from what had happened could account for Ms. Drexler's emotionless tone of voice at the hearing Thursday.

  Echoing the findings of prosecution and defense psychiatric examinations, Kaye described Ms. Drexler as someone who, upon becoming pregnant by her boyfriend, John Lewis of Barnegat Township, apparently isolated herself from her own emotions.

  "There is no question, from a psychological point of view, that she was suffering from emotional stress, and one of the keys in showing her mental condition was how she isolated herself from her family and from her boyfriend," he said.

  "She just denied it and continued to deny it."

  As the hearing unfolded in Judge Ricciardi's courtroom, the Greek-Revival courthouse was surrounded by an army of television trucks. Clutches of photographers were stationed at all the entrances in the hope of getting a picture of Ms. Drexler as she entered or left the courthouse.

  In the time since she was first arrested more than a year ago, she has lightened her once-dark brown hair to a medium blond.

  As a result, some reporters who had older published photographs took little notice of the blonde woman who, nonchalant and unaccompanied, walked past them, entered the well of the courtroom and sat down at the defense table minutes before the start of Thursday's proceedings.

  Kaye, speaking after the court session ended, gave more details about the case than Ms. Drexler had revealed in her court statement. He said that his investigation had determined that Ms. Drexler had arrived at the prom between 7:30 and 7:45 P.M., gone immediately to the women's room, entered a stall and locked it while a friend remained outside.

  He said there were no eyewitnesses to what happened in the stall, only someone who heard sounds and saw a large quantity of blood.

  Kaye said that Ms. Drexler delivered the baby, whom he described as "born perfect," into the toilet.

  She retrieved him and apparently cut the umbilical cord with the serrated edge of a paper towel dispenser that hung on the wall in the restroom stall.

  Tests of the baby's lungs for signs that it may have drowned were "inconclusive," Ms. Leschot said.

  Kaye said that the prosecution experts and a well-known forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden, who was brought in by Secare and Donald A. Venezia, the defense lawyers, differed on their explanation for this.

  Dr. Baden argued that it was possible that the child was stillborn and the air found in the lungs was put there by emergency medical technicians who tried to resuscitate the baby about an hour after Ms. Drexler had given birth.

  "We found some marks on the child's neck which led us to believe that he might have been strangled and not asphyxiated or drowned," Kaye said.

  "But the medical examiner wasn't sure if it was strangulation or asphyxiation."

  Speaking about the likely sentence, Kaye did note that if the baby's death had taken place three days later, Ms. Drexler would have been subject to a new state law that requires that those convicted serve at least 80 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.