Case of baby left outside goes to court

BERWICK – A lawyer for a woman who is accused of endangering her newborn girl by placing the infant outdoors in frigid temperatures said he plans to investigate her confession to police.

Jennifer Lynn Killian, 23, of Berwick, was arrested Nov. 27 shortly after she allegedly admitted to investigators that she placed her newborn in a plastic bag and set the bag outside her Garfield Avenue home minutes after she gave birth on Nov. 22.

Police said Killian agreed to the interview with investigators after she was read her Miranda warnings.

“I’m aware of the fact that there is a statement; I’ll be exploring the circumstances of how it was obtained,” attorney Frank Kepner said after Killian’s preliminary hearing on Wednesday.

Killian was charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment.

Police said in arrest records that the outdoor temperature was 17 degrees when the infant was found, and the baby’s body core temperature at the hospital was 84 degrees.

Physicians at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, where the infant was treated, informed police the newborn would not have survived outside for more than five minutes, arrest records say.

Killian waived her right to a preliminary hearing before District Judge Richard P. Cashman of Berwick, sending the charges to Columbia County Court of Common Pleas. She faces charges of simple assault and a second count of endangering the welfare of a child that were added on Wednesday.

Cashman modified Killian’s bail of $1 million to $25,000 during the brief court hearing. She was remanded to Columbia County Prison after the hearing.

“The million dollar bail, I think, is the highest ever in Columbia County, so it did indeed shocked me, specifically that she didn’t mean to hurt the child,” Kepner said.

“You don’t see a case of this nature every day,” Columbia County Assistant District Attorney Anthony McDonald said. “In doing this for the last 10 years, this is the first case of this nature in Columbia County; caught everybody by surprise.”

According to arrest records, Charles Drasher, Killian’s father, discovered the newborn outside his home.

Killian told police, according to arrest records, that she hid her pregnancy from her parents by wearing baggy clothes. After giving birth in a bathroom of her parents’ home, she tried to hide the newborn by placing the baby outside with intentions of taking her daughter to Berwick Hospital, arrest records say.