N.C. woman gets life for beating newborn, wrapping body in blankets and trash bag, leaving him in closet
02/16/2023 1:09 pm PST
UNION COUNTY, N.C. (TCD) -- A judge ordered a 30-year-old woman to spend the rest of her life in prison for beating and killing her newborn son in 2019.
In a statement, the Union County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday, Feb. 15, that Khrystina Marie Rice was convicted of first-degree murder and felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. As a result, she was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Rice was arrested Oct. 17, 2019, after her husband found her on the bathroom floor "bleeding extensively." According to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, paramedics arrived at Rice’s home on the 5900 block of Carolina Manor Court in Indian Trail and saw the blood but did not find any cuts on her body. Then, medics reportedly saw blood near a closet in the bedroom and placenta in the trash can. The Union County District Attorney’s Office said Rice "denied that she had delivered a baby."
Inside the closet, however, medics located a newborn boy "tightly wrapped from head to toe in a blanket," and the infant was hidden inside a trash bag.
Paramedics performed CPR on the child and found a faint pulse. Rice and the child were transported to a hospital for treatment, but the child died that day.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office said the child weighed 7 pounds at birth and was born healthy. Rice’s husband was reportedly "unaware of her pregnancy."
He became worried when he heard "what sounded like someone falling upstairs," which is when he found Rice covered in blood.
According to the Union County District Attorney’s Office, the baby boy suffered a skull fracture, facial contusions, and rib fractures. The child died from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy due to suffocation, which occurs when there is a lack of oxygen or blood flow to the brain.
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