A Flagler County grand jury today indicted Anne Mae Demegillo, the 20-year-old Palm Coast college student who in early March gave birth to a girl in a toilet in her house and watched her die, on a first-degree murder charge, among other charges.
At the time of her arrest after describing to Flagler County Sheriff’s detectives the succession of events that ended with her burying the newborn in her backyard at her Florida Park Drive house, she had been charged with aggravated manslaughter. But authorities cautioned that the State Attorney’s office could add to, or change, the charges.
The grand jury, meeting behind closed doors this afternoon, as grand juries always do, also indicted Demegillo on charges of aggravated child abuse, a first-degree felony, and failure to report a death with intent to conceal it, a misdemeanor. The baby’s gestational age was was between 30 and 36 weeks, according to a medical examiner report cited in court.
Demegillo had posted bail on a $250,000 bond after a hearing in mid-March, and was due in court Tuesday morning for her arraignment on the manslaughter charge. Later this month, she was due back in court for a motion her attorney, Michael Politis, filed, seeking to loosen the terms of her pre-trial bond. Demegillo wanted permission to attend college classes in Volusia County.
The indictment was followed this evening with her rearrest and booking at the Flagler County jail after Demegillo turned herself in. The jail’s site referred to a $30,000 bond, though the figure appears to be incorrect. A sheriff’s release stated that she was being held on no bond pending her first appearance before a judge, where the bond amount will be set. The rearrest may alter the sequence of court appearances and expected motions.
The sheriff’s release revealed that in the month since Demegillo’s arrest and as the investigation continued, “detectives uncovered additional facts including searches on Demegillo’s phone for ‘newborn premature babies,’ ‘Palm Coast OBGYN,’ and ‘foods to decrease fertility.’ Also located on her phone were images of Casey Anthony and newborn babies, which suggest searches on the death of a child and subsequent investigation.”
Casey Anthony is the Orlando mother whose toddler Caylee disappeared in 2008 and whose remains were found five months later not far from her house. Casey Anthony was indicted by a grand jury on first degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, aggravated child abuse and other lesser charges. A jury found her not guilty on all but the lesser charges of lying to police.
The vague similarities between the two cases are not as pronounced as differences that leave no doubt about Demegillo’s role and responsibility.
“Obviously the State Attorney found that our evidence proved intent, and so did the grand jury,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in an interview this evening. “She told us initially that she didn’t realize that she was pregnant, and later on changed it to ‘I wasn’t sure I was pregnant,’ but the evidence suggests she clearly knew that she was pregnant.” The searches were conducted while she was pregnant, the sheriff specified. Demegillo had told detectives previously that she didn’t seek help because she didn’t want her mother–who was in the house at the time of the infant’s death–to find out that she had been pregnant.
“We have done our job at this point,” the sheriff said. “We have thoroughly investigated it, turned over all our findings to the State Attorney, and the grand jury returned a true bill, which is what they say when they say–yes, the facts support these criminal charges. Our next par now is to be good witnesses and present the evidence when it goes to trial. We have done a very thorough and well done investigation.”
Staly said the deputy who was among the first at the scene and learned of the infant’s burial ran to the backyard and dug the shallow grave with bare hands, hoping to find the child still breathing.
“This is one of those tragic cases that shock you to your core that a mother would allow a newborn to die because the newborn was a distraction to her life,” Staly was quoted as saying in the release. “It’s hard to comprehend how a mother would choose to watch their infant drown instead of lifting the baby out of the toilet.” He commended investigators and the agency’s Digital Forensics team that uncovered the digital evidence and thanked State Attorney R.J. Larizza and his office “for reviewing the facts of our investigation and the Grand Jury for doing a very difficult job.”
Staly said he expected Politis to provide “a rigorous defense” of his client. Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak is prosecuting the case before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols.
Leave a Reply