"Newborn Jane" SERGIO - Hours old (2007) - Brooklyn/NYC NY

An emergency room nurse burst into tears on the witness stand Wednesday describing how accused baby killer Laura Sergio's dead daughter was brought to the hospital."It was bluish, she was full term, her features were fully formed," stammered Anne Montemarano, on duty at Lutheran Medical Center the night Sergio allegedly murdered her newborn at her Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, home.A color photograph of the dead child taken at the hospital was projected on a large screen in the courtroom, and Montemarano was asked by prosecutors if she recognized the baby."Yes," she said sobbing, "It's burned into my memory."

At the defense table, Sergio did not look at the photograph, but rather stared impassively at Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Alan Marrus, who is presiding over the murder trial that began yesterday.The dead baby was brought to the hospital by police who discovered it in a trash bag on the patio of the home where Sergio, 28, lived with her parents and two sisters when the incident occurred on April 7, 2007.About five hours earlier, Sergio and her mother Lena went to the hospital by ambulance after Sergio said she was suffering from severe abdominal pains, prosecutors said. An ER doctor examined her, discovered she had given birth and notified police.Sergio's sister, Andria, found the baby's placenta in a toilet bowl and brought it to the hospital later in another ambulance, according to prosecutor Jonathan Kaye.Laura Sergio maintains she had no idea that she was pregnant and has no memory of giving birth, according to her attorneys.

A Bay Ridge woman who claimed she couldn’t remember giving birth to a baby girl that was left outside her home to die was convicted of manslaughter at the conclusion of her bench trial in Kings County Supreme Court.Laura Sergio, 28, will face up to 25 years in prison at sentencing Nov. 12. She was glassy-eyed as she left the defense table and stumbled out of the courtroom surrounded by family members after the verdict was read.Kings County Supreme Court Justice Alan Marrus said Sergio “recklessly engaged in conduct that caused a child’s death” before stating she was guilty of manslaughter, although he found her not guilty of murder.Sergio’s attorney, Louis Aidala, immediately called the trial unfair after the verdict was announced.“The Court of Appeals would want the court [to] schedule a [fair trial] hearing. … She could not and did not receive a fair trial because of her amnesia,” Aidala argued.“I don’t know of any reason why she didn’t receive a fair trial. … Please sit down,” Justice Marrus responded, having advised Aidala that he could file a motion prior to the sentencing date. Aidala said he would file the motion.During the bench trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court Criminal Term at 320 Jay St., Sergio has been free on a $750,000 bond put up by her parents, and was free to leave court after the verdict was announced.Sergio’s defense team claimed before trial that Sergio, whose baby died from hypothermia and asphyxia by smothering after being wrapped in towels and placed in a garbage bag on the porch outside, had no recollection of the birth or of cutting the umbilical cord.Two court-appointed psychologists agreed that Sergio has amnesia. But a psychologist for prosecutors said she was faking the condition. At a pretrial hearing over the issues, prosecutors claimed “this dissociative amnesia comes to play when she realized what she did with this child.”Sergio gave birth to her child on Good Friday, April 6, 2007, in the bathroom of her family’s Bay Ridge home. Her mother brought Sergio to Lutheran Medical Center that night with complaints of bleeding, but Sergio denied being pregnant or giving birth. Doctors determined that Sergio’s symptoms were consistent with the vaginal birth of a full-term infant and notified police.Early reports said Sergio told doctors, “It wasn’t me. There is no baby. … It’s not mine,” while pointing at her stomach.Officers from the 68th Precinct discovered the baby infant amongst bloody towels in a garbage bag on the porch of her 81st Street home. They brought the newborn daughter to Lutheran Medical Center where attempts were made to revive the baby. Sergio, then 25, was charged with murder and sent to Bellevue Hospital for a mental health evaluation. Criminal charges originally filed against two of Sergio’s sisters were later dropped. Facing charges of improper disposal of a human being, sister Andria Sergio told a grand jury in 2007 that she found Laura in the bathroom surrounded by bloody towels. Andria said she had no idea there was a baby in the towels, so she put them in garbage bags and left them on the home’s front porch. However, it appears the family realized what had happened after Laura went to the hospital. According to reports, Andria even discovered the placenta in a toilet bowl and brought it to the hospital in an ambulance.During trial, Andria reportedly exercised her fifth Amendment right to not incriminate herself and did not testify.Cara Sergio was charged with obstructing governmental administration for hindering the investigation, but those charges were also dropped.The crime shocked the Sergios' quiet neighborhood at 81st Street and Colonial Road in Bay Ridge and upset Easter celebrations that weekend.Neighbors told news sources that the Sergio parents were strict and were rumored to not approve of Sergio’s latest boyfriend. Early reports said the presumed father of the baby had also been questioned by police and said he also had no idea she was pregnant.Sergio was an honors student at Long Island University and came from a Catholic family, which neighbors said may have driven Sergio to try and conceal that she became pregnant out of wedlock. Under New York state’s Safe Haven law, parents have five days to leave an unwanted infant at either a fire station, police station or hospital without facing any criminal charges.