ROCKFORD — Katie Stockton is the probable mother of two infants whose
remains were found in the trunk of her impounded car, Winnebago County
Coroner Sue Fiduccia said today.

Both infants, discovered Aug. 12 at an impound lot in South Beloit, are
believed to be female and are not twins, the coroner said. It is
unclear if the babies were born alive, and the cause of their deaths
has not been identified.

“The DNA testing ... is pointing that Katie Stockton is the mother,”
Fiduccia said. “The investigation is continuing, and we are hoping that
in this next phase of our forensic testing that we will be able to
determine a cause of death.”

Police believe Stockton is also the mother of Baby Crystal, a newborn
found frozen to death on the side of a country road near the home of
Stockton’s parents on a cold December night in 2004. Stockton was
arrested Aug. 5 after new information purportedly linked her to Baby
Crystal. Investigators have not commented on the substance of the new
information.

Although authorities say they don’t know when either of the two infants
found last year was born, they believe it was after Baby Crystal.

Stockton faces 10 counts of first-degree murder in the Baby Crystal case. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Winnebago County State’s Attorney Joe Bruscato said he is bringing no
new charges against Stockton at this time because the cause of the
death has not been determined. Further forensic testing, which may lead
to more answers, could take up to six weeks.

Without being specific to this case, Fiduccia said a person can be held
responsible for not reporting a death. That could mean Stockton could
face additional charges even if the infants were deemed stillborn.

“There is a law that you do have to report a death, so you cannot
conceal a body or move a body without the coroner being notified,”
Fiduccia said.

Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers said the father of one of the
infants in the car has been identified, but he wouldn’t say how his
identity was determined.

Bruscato would not comment when asked if the other two infants had different fathers.

Meyers said they are seeking information from men who may have been
involved with Stockton between December 2004, when Baby Crystal was
found, and mid-2007. Stockton’s car was impounded Aug. 15, 2008, and
had been at the impound lot up until the discovery of the two infants.

Fiduccia, who was heavily involved in the Baby Crystal investigation
and the infant’s subsequent burial, said she would like the other two
infants to be buried when the investigation is complete.

“We do have the grave next to Baby Crystal reserved, so we are hoping
at some point that the three girls can be buried near each other,”
Fiduccia said. “I think that would be very special for Baby Crystal to
have her two sisters buried near her.”

Stockton is scheduled to be in court Wednesday on the charges pending against her.

Standard sentencing for first-degree murder is 20 to 60 years, but
Stockton could face extended sentencing based on the victim’s age,
including up to 100 years in prison or the death penalty.

Baby Crystal’s mom claims police violated rights

By Jeff Kolkey
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Sep 17, 2011 @ 12:35 AM
Last update Sep 19, 2011 @ 09:47 PM

ROCKFORD — Katie L. Stockton is asking Associate Judge John Truitt to have her confession in the death of her newborn baby tossed out of court.

Stockton, 30, was arrested for the horrific death of her infant daughter two years ago. She has been in jail ever since without bail.

Dubbed Baby Crystal, the infant was found Dec. 17, 2004, nearly frozen by the side of the road, stuffed in a white plastic garbage bag outside her family’s rural Rockton home. The mother’s identity remained a mystery for nearly five years.

Finally in August 2009, Stockton was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of the baby. The arrest came only after DNA evidence she for months resisted providing — and police at the time refused to confirm or deny — finally showed she was the infant’s mother.

But as police closed in on Stockton and a warrant was issued for her arrest, she went to visit a friend in Kansas City, Kan., where she was arrested. Winnebago County sheriff’s Detectives Jason Newell and Dennis Cox traveled to the Kansas City Police Department to interview her.

“During this interview, Katie Stockton made admissions about giving birth to Baby Crystal and leaving her at the address on Will Road in Rockton, Illinois,” Newell says in court records. “Katie also told us she drove a blue Saturn at the time this happened.”

Learning about the 1993 blue Saturn would lead the detectives to a gruesome discovery. The car had been impounded by the South Beloit Police Department when Stockton was charged with traffic violations in 2008. It was still in storage at a privately owned lot in South Beloit.

The remains of two more of Stockton’s infants would be found inside the vehicle’s trunk where they had been left to rot. Forensic testing in September 2010 could not conclude whether the infants found in the car were born dead or alive. Each of the babies was from a different father. No charges have ever been filed in connection with their deaths.

On Friday, Stockton appeared in court dressed in a green jail jumpsuit. She was in chains and didn’t speak. A case that has moved slowly through the justice system continued its slow pace.

Arguments over her request to have her statements made in Kansas City ruled inadmissible were delayed until Oct. 13 on her motion.

In court documents, David Doll, Stockton’s public defender, argues that her “mental condition prevented the defendant from waiving her rights” to remain silent and consult with an attorney. He also argues that the police continued to interview Stockton in violation of her constitutional rights even after she asked to end the discussion and asked for an attorney.

“(Stockton) further states that any statement or confessions or test elicited from her was the direct result of mental coercion and was therefore involuntary,” Doll argues. “The mental coercion is evident throughout the interview and included, but not limited to, direct references to the defendant’s family and the consequences to her family that would result in her failure to speak to the detectives.”

State’s Attorney Joe Bruscato in court documents argues that the defense can’t just claim a confession was involuntary and have it thrown out. The defense must state facts proving a confession was involuntary.

Bruscato said in court documents that the burden has shifted to Stockton to prove her “waiver was not knowing, intelligent or voluntary.”

Staff writer Jeff Kolkey can be reached at jkolkey@rrstar.com or at 815-987-1374.

Key dates in the case
Dec. 17, 2004: A baby is found frozen to death, discarded in a white garbage bag outside Katie L. Stockton’s family home in Rockton. It is later learned that Crystal, as local law enforcement officials name the baby, had cocaine in her system and had tested positive for hepatitis B. Stockton is interviewed at her boyfriend’s residence in Rockford, but no evidence is discovered linking her to the baby.

Sept. 3, 2008: Stockton pleads guilty to charges of forgery. As part of her conviction she is ordered to provide a DNA sample within 45 days, but as weeks go by she refuses to comply with repeated requests to submit to the order.

July 15, 2009: Detectives covertly observe Stockton smoke a cigarette outside American Cash Advance in Machesney Park. After she discarded the cigarette butt in the parking lot, detectives retrieved it for DNA testing. On July 31, reports indicate the DNA on Stockton’s cigarette matched that of samples taken from the bloodstained clothing found with Baby Crystal.

Aug. 3, 2009: A warrant is issued for Stockton’s arrest after she fails to show for a court date. Charges are authorized for her arrest for the homicide of her newborn infant. On Aug. 5, police arrest Stockton in Kansas City, Kan., where she was visiting a friend. Detectives from the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department interview Stockton in Kansas City. She allegedly confesses to giving birth to Baby Crystal and leaving her to die on Will Road in Rockton.

Aug. 11, 2009: Following up on information obtained during their interview with Stockton, police discover that Stockton’s blue 1993 Saturn had been impounded Aug. 15, 2008, when South Beloit police had charged her with traffic violations. The car was still at a private tow yard in South Beloit. After getting a search warrant, detectives searched the vehicle. Found buried beneath a tire iron, damaged spare tire and Craftsman chain saw in the trunk are two bags containing the remains of two female infants.

April 5, 2010: Police announce they have identified one man as the father of Baby Crystal and another as the father of an infant found in Stockton’s trunk. Neither was identified as the father of the third baby, and authorities have not publicly said whether they have identified a father of that infant. Forensic analysts report in September that they could not determine how the babies died or whether they were born alive. No charges have been filed in connection with the babies found in Stockton’s trunk.

Sept. 16, 2011: Stockton’s motion to continue arguments over her request to throw out her alleged confession and statements to police was granted. Stockton will appear before Associate Judge John Truitt again Oct. 13. Stockton was denied bail in December and has been in jail for more than two years.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1408088915/In-Saturdays-paper-Baby-Crystal-s-mom-claims-police-violated-her-rights

Judge to hear Katie Stockton's plea to throw out alleged confession
Last update Oct 14, 2011 @ 05:54 AM

ROCKFORD — Associate Judge John Truitt agreed today to allow a hearing that will determine whether Katie L. Stockton’s alleged confession in the 2004 death of Baby Crystal was coerced by authorities and should be ruled inadmissible.

Public Defender David Doll is asking the court to suppress statements obtained by Winnebago County Sheriff’s detectives in August 2009.

The detectives had traveled to Kansas City, Mo., after Stockton was arrested on a warrant. The officers conducted a roughly hourlong interrogation of Stockton in a Kansas City police station.
Now Stockton says her statements should be tossed out of court.

She argues in court documents that she wasn’t in a physical or mental condition necessary to waive her rights to remain silent, that police coerced her into giving them statements and that police refused to end the interview even after she said she wanted to leave.

Assistant State’s Attorney Marilyn Hite Ross argued that Stockton’s motion to have her statements suppressed was not specific enough.

Truitt, however, said the motion was plenty clear. He plans to watch a video of her confession in private before hearing arguments Nov. 29 in court about whether the material should be made part of an eventual trial.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1968428037/Judge-to-hear-Stocktons-plea-to-throw-out-alleged-confession

Judge: Katie Stockton's statements to police were not coerced

By Jeff Kolkey
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Dec 13, 2011 @ 12:27 PM
Last update Dec 13, 2011 @ 06:05 PM

ROCKFORD — Potentially incriminating statements that Katie Stockton made to police could cause her defense trouble in a trial over the death of a newborn infant.

That’s the effect of a ruling today by Judge John Truitt.

Stockton, 31, is accused of leaving her newborn infant, dubbed Baby Crystal, to freeze to death by the side of Will Road outside her parents’ house in Rockton in December 2004. She has pleaded not guilty.

But a confession she allegedly made to police after her arrest in 2009 is purported to include statements in which she acknowledged she was Baby Crystal’s mother and that she had left the baby.

First Deputy Public Defender David Doll today told Truitt he agreed that those potentially damning statements were made voluntarily to Winnebago County sheriff’s detectives — even though the defense maintains police violated Stockton’s rights in obtaining them.

“We’re willing to concede the point, Judge,” Doll said.

The statements were tossed out of court Nov. 29 after Truitt ruled that a 67-page transcript and video of a 2009 interrogation of Stockton in Kansas City, Kan., show she repeatedly told Winnebago County detectives she did not want to talk and that she wanted an attorney.

Today’s ruling means Truitt found that although Stockton’s constitutional rights to remain silent and have a lawyer present during police questioning were violated, her statements were not coerced.

Still, Stockton’s statements could harm her case only if she testified at trial; otherwise, they remain suppressed and a jury will not hear them.

Deputy State’s Attorney Marilyn Hite Ross said today that she could not comment because she is bound by ethical rules.

Former Deputy State’s Attorney Chuck Prorok, who now operates a private practice and is not involved in the case, said the ruling means the statements may still come into play during a trial.

Prorok said proving coercion is very difficult.

“Anytime a judge rules statements were made voluntarily instead of coerced, the statement can be used to impeach the individual should the person testify at trial and testify contrary to what was in the statement,” Prorok said.

Also today, Ross told Truitt she plans to file a motion asking him to reconsider his previous ruling. Although not a necessary step before an appeal is filed with the 2nd District Appellate Court in Elgin, the motion to reconsider based on further case law or information being provided is typical before an appeal.

Stockton is expected back in court Jan. 13 for a hearing on the state’s motion to reconsider the suppression of statements.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/publicsafety/x931416859/Judge-Katie-Stocktons-statements-to-police-were-not-coerced

What a sick beeoch! I sure hope she gets a long prison sentence and while they are at it, can they please sterilize her? This woman is sick in the head and her form of abortion appears to be murder after the baby is born.

Prosecutors want judge to change mind on Katie Stockton statements

Last update Jan 13, 2012 @ 02:38 PM

ROCKFORD — Prosecutors hope to convince Judge John Truitt to reconsider his decision to toss Katie Stockton’s statements to police.

In a 12-page court filing, prosecutors argue that Stockton, the woman accused of killing her newborn in 2004, failed to clearly invoke her rights to remain silent or have an attorney present during questioning.

Stockton showed she actually had “a willingness and desire for a generalized discussion about the investigation,” according to the filing.

A hearing on the prosecution’s request was delayed until Feb. 9 when Stockton’s public defender could not appear in court today because of a family situation.
Truitt in November ruled that Stockton had wanted to assert her right to remain silent and wanted an attorney and that the police questioning should have stopped.

He later ruled that Stockton’s statements were voluntary. That means even though the statements were suppressed, they could be used at an eventual trial if Stockton decided to take the stand in her own defense.

“During the interview the defendant was very chatty and questioned the officers extensively,” prosecutors argued in the filing. “Furthermore, she was selective regarding the questions she chose to answer.”

Stockton is accused of leaving her newborn infant, dubbed Baby Crystal, to freeze to death by the side of the road near her parents’ house in Rockton. Detectives in 2009 found evidence they say links Stockton to the baby.

Detectives later discovered the decomposed remains of two infant girls, each wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, in the trunk of Stockton’s car a week after the police interrogation.

No charges have yet been brought regarding the two because forensic evidence could not prove whether they were born alive, although charges are still possible.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/publicsafety/x3496901/Prosecutors-want-judge-to-change-mind-on-Katie-Stockton-statements

Katie Stockton's statements remain barred from Baby Crystal trial

ROCKFORD — Potentially incriminating statements Katie L. Stockton gave
Winnebago County sheriff’s police detectives won’t be used at her trial
for the death of Baby Crystal.
Winnebago County State’s Attorney Joe Bruscato has allowed a deadline
to expire without filing an appeal of 17th Circuit Court Judge John
Truitt’s ruling that barred the statements.
Bruscato declined to comment.
Legal experts including former prosecutor and now private attorney
Chuck Prorok and former Republican state’s attorney candidate David Gill
confirmed there is a 30-day window in which such appeals can be made.
That window appears closed.
Stockton is accused of leaving her baby — dubbed Baby Crystal — to
freeze to death outside her parents’ Rockton home in December 2004. She
was arrested in summer 2009.
Last month, after 2½ years in jail, Stockton’s trial date was set to begin June 25.
Statements she made could have bolstered the state’s case in addition
to DNA and forensic evidence that is expected to show she is Baby
Crystal’s mother and that the baby froze to death after being born full
term.
Because Stockton had asked for a lawyer, those statements can’t be used, Truitt said.
Bruscato had been poised for an appeal, submitting a 12-page motion
asking Truitt to reconsider his November ruling that Stockton’s rights
to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning were
violated.
But Truitt on March 2 declined to reverse his earlier findings.
That decision represented the culmination of roughly six months spent
on the issue of whether Stockton’s statements to detectives about
“giving birth to Baby Crystal and leaving her at the address on Will
Road in Rockton,” according to court documents, could be used at trial.

Now the only way those statements, which public defender David Doll has conceded were voluntary, can become part of the trial if she takes the stand in her own defense.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/babycrystal/x221043947/Katie-Stocktons-statements-remain-barred-from-Baby-Crystal-trial

The trial against a Roscoe woman, accused of killing her newborn baby, is pushed back.

Katie Stockton was in court today. She faces first
degree murder charges in the death of her daughter. The baby was found
alongside a rural Winnebago County road back in December of 2004. An
autopsy proves the baby froze to death. The child was named "Baby
Crystal" by investigators as they searched for her mother. Police say
Stockton is and she was arrested in 2009. In August of that year police
found the remains of two other infants inside Stockton's car, which had
been at an impound lot in South Beloit since 2008. Stockton hasn't
been charged in those cases.

Lawyers are in the process of going over some
pre-trial motions for the baby found in 2004. Defense attorneys asked
for a continuance in the trial against Stockton, and it was granted.
The trial was supposed to start June 25th, but now it looks like the
earliest it could move forward is the end of August. A new date hasn't
been set yet. That's expected to happen May 29th.

http://www.wrex.com/story/18311123/katie-stockton-trial-delayed

Katie Stockton Admits Leaving 'Baby Crystal' To Die In Road

02/21/13 11:20 PM ET EST
AP

ROCKFORD, Ill. -- An Illinois woman believed to be the mother of two infants found dead in the trunk of an impounded car admitted Thursday to leaving another baby girl to freeze to death along a rural roadside nearly five years earlier.

After reaching an agreement with prosecutors, Katie Stockton of Rockton pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the December 2004 death of the infant known as Baby Crystal, who authorities believe was Stockton's daughter.

Winnebago County State's Attorney Joe Bruscato agreed to drop other charges in the case, which had been set to go to trial Monday.

Neither Bruscato nor public defender David Doll commented after Thursday's hearing.

It was after Stockton's 2009 arrest in Baby Crystal's death that investigators discovered her car had been sitting in an impound lot for a year. They towed it to a Winnebago County Sheriff's Department facility to search for more clues in that case, and instead found the remains of two other infants wrapped in cloth and stuffed in separate plastic bags.

Authorities have said DNA testing found Stockton likely also was the mother of those two infants. She hasn't been charged in those deaths.

Stockton originally was questioned in Baby Crystal's death in 2004 after the newborn's frozen remains were discovered in a plastic bag along a dead-end road near her parents' home. Prosecutors said that when detectives interviewed Stockton hours after the discovery, she lifted her shirt and asked if she looked like she had just given birth.

Stockton refused to provide a DNA sample, but detectives investigating the death collected evidence from a cigarette butt they saw her discard. Authorities said saliva on the cigarette butt matched blood found on the clothing with Baby Crystal, and Stockton was arrested.

Bruscato said further tests showed Stockton was the baby's mother with a 99.96 percent certainty.

Stockton faces up to 60 years in prison when she's sentenced April 5.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/22/katie-stockton-baby-crystal-die-in-road_n_2740641.html?ref=topbar

Mother admits leaving infant daughter on roadside to die in freezing temperatures... but avoids prosecution for two other dead babies found in her trunk

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 02:16 EST, 22 February 2013
UPDATED: 10:48 EST, 22 February 2013

A rural Illinois woman has admitted that she wrapped her infant daughter in a plastic bag and dumped her in a snow bank in the dead of water to freeze to death.

Katie Stockton, 32, pleaded guilty to first degree murder in the death of Baby Crystal outside her home in Rockton, Illinois in December 2004.

However, she will likely avoid prosecution on two other infant daughters that were found dead in plastic bags in the truck of her car because detectives can't prove the babies were born alive.

Stockton had been carrying the skeletons of the babies in the trunk of her car when she was stopped for a traffic violation in 2008.

Police impounded her car, but did not search the vehicle discover the remains of the infants until 2009.

The babies in the trunk were born full-term from separate pregnancies and were each wrapped in cloth and placed into separate plastic bags.

Police do not know how long ago Stockton gave birth to the two babies or how long that had been in the trunk of her Saturn sedan.

Stockton also has a son, now 11. All of her pregnancies came from different fathers, authorities concluded.

For five years, Stockton played a cat-and-mouse game with police and avoided being arrested for the death of Baby Crystal.

She was finally charged in 2009 after officers tested the DNA from one of her discarded cigarette butts and concluded that she was the mother of Baby Crystal.

Stockton had long denied she had left the infant to die in the freezing cold on December 17, 2004, and refused to cooperate with police.

Stockton originally was questioned in Baby Crystal's death in 2004 after the newborn's frozen remains were discovered in a plastic bag along a dead-end road near her parents' home.

Prosecutors said that when detectives interviewed Stockton hours after the discovery, she lifted her shirt and asked if she looked like she had just given birth.

Stockton faces up to 60 years in prison when she's sentenced April 5.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2282665/Katie-Stockton-Illinois-woman-admits-leaving-Baby-Crystal-roadside-die-freezing-temperatures.html#ixzz2MIw2qYrR

By Brendan O'Brien
updated 4/6/2013 12:20:42 PM ET
(Reuters) - An Illinois woman was sentenced to 50 years in prison in the 2004 death of her newborn daughter, whose frozen remains were found in a plastic bag at the roadside, according to local reports.

Katie Stockton, 32, who pleaded guilty in February, was sentenced in a Winnebago County Circuit Court on Friday for the murder of her baby in 2004, the Rockford Register Star newspaper reported.

Stockton gave birth to the baby girl in secret on December 17, 2004, according to the newspaper.

She then put the newborn into a plastic Halloween-themed bag that she placed in a white garbage bag and left at the side of the road 99 feet from her parents' home in Rockton, the Register Star said.

It was believed that the baby either suffocated or froze to death, according to the paper.

An investigation into the deaths of two other infant girls whose skeletal remains were found in plastic bags in the trunk of Stockton's impounded car is still open, the newspaper said.

The Register Star said the remains were found after Stockton's arrest in 2009. Authorities have not been able to determine whether the babies were born alive.

Rockton is about 100 miles northwest of Chicago.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Greg McCune and Gunna Dickson)

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51451317/ns/us_news/t/illinois-mom-gets-prison-frozen-baby-death-report/?lite&lite=obnetwork

At least one little angel gets some justice. Sad that three little babies are gone and this woman is still alive. I would love to have a little girl, she could have given them up and not kill them. William

Maybe they will beat her fat ass to death in prison.

I'm merging this with the original thread from 2010.