THOMAS LAST - Newborn (2008) - Port Angeles WA

PORT ANGELES -- Lauryn L. Last, a Port Angeles
teen who has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder for
allegedly drowning her infant son in December 2008, has been released
from the Clallam County Juvenile Services Detention Facility to live
with relatives.

Last, 17, pled not guilty to first-degree murder
in January 2009 after authorities found her newborn son in a 30-ton
trash container near Tacoma six days after his death.

Her trial,
which had been scheduled to begin on Monday, was postponed earlier this
month because attorneys were sifting through piles of evidence and
paperwork.

Instead, a new trial date will be set on Monday in a pretrial hearing at 9 a.m.

Clallam
County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams on Friday released Last from
the juvenile center with standard conditions of release and a 6 p.m. to
6 a.m. curfew.

Last will be living with her uncle, Lewis Harris
of Port Angeles, and grandmother, Ella Harris of Port Angeles. The only
exception to the curfew is for Last to attend self-help meetings.

Williams said the teen is not a flight risk and does not pose a danger to the community.

Defense attorney John Hayden filed a motion for a bill of particulars on Jan. 15.

The
motion asks the state to disclose its theory of the case, evidence that
the infant was born alive, expert opinion on how the infant died and
what evidence the state intends to use to prove premeditation on the
part of Last.

"I'm still at a loss to understand the state's theory on the cause of death," Hayden said in Friday's hearing.

Judge Williams will rule on the motion for discovery in Monday's hearing.

Prosecutors
allege that Last drowned the infant, Thomas Last, in a toilet and
placed the body in a trash container outside her father's Port Angeles
residence.

Defense attorneys say that Lauryn Last didn't know she was in labor and that she went into shock after giving birth.

The trash was taken to the Port Angeles waste transfer station, then to another transfer station near Tacoma.

Lauryn Last was arrested at her father's Port Angeles home on Jan. 2, 2009. The original bail was set at $500,000.

After
spending eight months in custody, Last was released from juvenile
center in September to live with another uncle and to attend school.

She was placed on an electronic home monitoring system.

After a fallout with her uncle, a warrant was issued, and Last returned to custody on Nov. 3.

Defense
attorney Suzanne Hayden argued successfully on Friday that Last
shouldn't be placed on electronic home monitoring this time.

The
baby's father, Gregory Greenway, 37, of Pueblo, Colo., is serving four
years in a Colorado prison for criminal attempt to commit sexual
assault on a child for assaulting Last, then age 15, in 2008.

Greenway faced a potential life sentence on an original charge of criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a child.

He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge as part of a plea agreement in Pueblo District Court.

Hearing for teen mom in Port Angeles moved to May

PORT ANGELES — The last day of testimony in a series of hearings concerning a teenager accused of killing her newborn son was delayed from a planned Thursday court session to a hearing in late May.

Lauryn Last, now 18, is accused of second-degree murder in the Dec. 31, 2008, death of her newly born full-term infant.

She allegedly incriminated herself in statements to police after waiving her rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present during police questioning.

Last, then 16, was charged as an adult Jan. 2, 2009, with first-degree murder, a charge later reduced to second-degree murder.

What she said to police in January 2009 has not been made public.

Her attorneys filed a motion to exclude those statements from her trial because, the attorneys said, she didn’t understand what waiving her rights meant, according to court documents.

During a series of continued hearings since November, Port Angeles police officers and expert witnesses have been testifying about whether Last understood the process.

Hearing set for May 26

The hearing is now scheduled for May 26 at 9 a.m. in Clallam County Superior Court.

The reason for the delay was not noted in court documents.

Last agreed Thursday to waive her right to a speedy trial.

The May hearing is expected to be the last day of testimony on the motion to exclude her statements to police, but a ruling won’t be issued until later.

Last’s trial, set for June 7, was postponed, pending Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams’ ruling on Last’s statements to police.

The maximum sentence for the second-degree murder charge is 18 years and four months.

Last’s child was fathered by a 37-year-old man who is now serving time in Colorado for sexual assault of Last as a child.

Last is living with a relative on her own recognizance.

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011304089993

Last modified: September 02. 2011 12:34AM

March trial date set for teen accused of killing newborn

Lauryn Last spends part of her 19th birthday Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court. -- Photo by Chris Tucker/Peninsula Daily News


PORT ANGELES — At least three years will have elapsed between the Dec. 30, 2008, death of Lauryn Last’s newborn boy and Last’s trial on a charge of murdering the infant.

Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams on Thursday set March 12 for Last’s second-degree murder trial, a day after he ruled her statement to police — in which in one version, she said she had let the infant die — was admissible at her trial.

Williams said in his ruling Wednesday that during Last’s interrogation, an officer lied to her, saying there was evidence against her when there wasn’t.

Williams said the deception was “an interrogation technique” and that police did not coerce the Port Angeles resident into confessing.

In court Thursday on her 19th birthday, Last, dressed in a print blouse and with her hair in a bun, spoke softly as she agreed to the March 12 trial date.

Williams set aside eight days for the trial.

County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg said Wednesday that it would have been difficult to proceed with a trial without Williams’ ruling on Last’s statement to police.

Williams also set 1:30 p.m. Sept. 30 for Troberg and defense lawyer John Hayden of Clallam-Jefferson Public Defenders to file motions and for Williams to review the status of the case.

In agreeing to a trial date more than six months away, Troberg told Williams that Hayden had said there were “scientific issues” Hayden wanted to raise.

“There are a whole passel of issues to raise,” Hayden responded.

Hayden was unavailable to comment Thursday about the court hearing.

“My thought is, let’s get this thing on the road toward a resolution,” Troberg said in an interview.

“If we have some additional motions or briefs, we need to get on with it.”

Last remained on her own recognizance Thursday and left the courtroom with three adults.

Troberg said Last is living with family members.

Last was 16 when county Prosecutor Deb Kelly charged her with first-degree murder, a charge Kelly later reduced to second-degree murder.

Last’s pregnancy was the result of a sexual assault on her that occurred when she was 15 and living in Colorado, according to court records.

A Colorado man who was 37 at the time is serving time in Colorado for the assault.

Williams ruled Wednesday that Last was not coerced Jan. 2, 2009, into making incriminating statements three days after her baby had died.

Hayden had argued Last’s mental state, marked by the results of sexual and physical abuse from age 5, made her incapable of waiving her Miranda rights to counsel and to remain silent.

The prosecution said she was able to make an informed decision.

Last gives several versions of the birth and death of her son, according to a 52-page transcript of her statement.

Port Angeles police interviews were conducted separately by Port Angeles Detective Jesse Winfield and Detective Sgt. Steve Coyle.

Last had smoked marijuana and taken methadone the day of the interviews, which were conducted early in the evening, Williams said in his ruling.

During the first two of three interviews with police, she said she had tried to revive the infant with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Between the second and third interview, Coyle said there was a “stalemate” in the interrogation, prompting Coyle to speak to Last “for three or four minutes,” Williams said.

Coyle’s questioning of Last was not recorded, Troberg said Thursday.

Coyle told her the evidence pointed to her guilt and that up to that point in the interrogation, “she was not being truthful,” Williams said.

“[Coyle] asked her some questions and got some answers which were responsive and more inculpatory,” Williams said.

After she talked to Coyle, Last said in the third interview that she intentionally let the infant die in the toilet, according to the transcript of the confession.

“Although Sgt. Coyle had told Ms. Last that he knew that the evidence would not support her story, at the time, he did not know that that was the case and had therefore lied to her as an interrogation technique,” Williams said.

Last subsequently indicated her self-incriminating statements “were made simply to have the interviews over with” and that “she finally just told the officers what they wanted,” Williams said.

“However, the question before the court is whether or not the answers she gave were the result of having her will overborne by police coercion,” the judge said.

Williams ruled there was no coercion involved.

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110902/NEWS/309029982/march-trial-date-set-for-teen-accused-of-killing-newborn

http://www.sequimgazette.com/news/article.exm/2012-02-01_teen_mom_accepts_manslaughter_plea_deal

Teen mom accepts manslaughter plea deal

Published on Wed, Feb 1, 2012

More than three years after being charged as an adult with first-degree premeditated murder in the death of her infant son, Lauryn L. Last, 19, accepted a plea deal from the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Office.



Last made an Alford Plea, which does not admit guilt but concedes enough evidence exists for a likely jury finding of guilt, to the amended charge of manslaughter in the second degree in juvenile court Jan. 25.



Last was 15 when she became pregnant by a 34-year-old man in Colorado, who was sentenced to four years for the sexual assault, according to court documents. On Dec. 30, 2008, then-16-year-old Last gave birth to a boy on the toilet in her father’s Port Angeles residence, police said.



According to court documents, Last kept her pregnancy a secret until after the birth and disposed of the body in a garbage receptacle.



Though Last allegedly confessed to police she allowed the baby to drown before placing it in a bath mat and dropping it in a garbage can, there was no forensic proof of a live birth after the baby’s remains were found several days later in a Tacoma landfill, Deputy Prosecutor John Troberg said.

Question of confession
A year of hearings with expert testimony questioned whether Last’s confession could be admitted in court. Defense attorney John Hayden argued the four-hour police interview conducted two days after the birth should be suppressed from trial because Last was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder by a psychologist shortly after she was taken into custody at the juvenile detention center.


A psychologist testifying for the prosecution disputed that a stress disorder would inhibit Last’s ability to understand her rights as given by Port Angeles Police officers prior to the interview.



Ultimately, Judge Ken Williams ruled Last’s condition may have made her susceptible to telling officers what they wanted to hear, but he could not find any evidence police acted inappropriately and therefore the statements could be admitted at trial.



Trial was set to begin March 12.

Decision to lower charge


The original murder charge, filed by Clallam County Prosecutor Deb Kelly on Jan. 7, 2009, was reduced to second-degree murder in March 2010 by Troberg.



The decision to lower the charge to second-degree manslaughter and remand it back to juvenile court took into account Last’s age at the time of birth, the manner in which she became pregnant and the lack of parental support, Troberg said.



Prosecutors concluded it was highly unlikely a jury would convict Last of murder in adult court.



“This resolution holds her accountable for the homicide of her infant son,” Troberg said. “While an imperfect resolution, it is consistent with the facts the state could prove at trial.”



The Prosecutor’s Office spent $25,832 on expert witnesses, more than $1,000 on documents and $52 on research materials for the case, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols said.



Superior Court Administrator Lindy Clevenger said the court paid $5,958 in expert services for the case.




The Clallam Public Defender’s Office did not respond to two requests for an estimate of how much money was spent on Last’s case.



Williams sentenced Last to 30 days in juvenile detention, with credit for nine months served, and a year of probation. He also ordered her to continue getting counseling.