By SANDRA K. REABUCK
EBENSBURG — Judge Gerard Long will allow as evidence incriminating statements that a Johnstown woman made to police about the birth of her daughter last year.
The judge’s ruling opens the way for prosecutors to use the statements at the upcoming trial of Jennifer Strelnik McKendree on charges of third-degree murder, concealing the death of a child and related offenses.
Jury selection is set to begin Oct. 17.
Defense attorneys Art McQuillan and Robert Davis Gleason sought to have the statements suppressed because, they contended, she should have been given her Miranda warnings before questioning by police.
McKendree spoke to a Johnstown police officer who was called to her parents’ home April 12, 2006, after the newborn’s body was found hidden in plastic shopping bags beneath a basement laundry table.
McKendree, 34, of Upper Yoder Township, told police the baby was born a day earlier at her parents’ Moxham home. She said she gave birth as she was sitting on the toilet, and that the infant appeared to be moving, but not breathing, when she picked her up.
Long said Thursday that Officer Eric Kabler, the first officer at the scene, “did not necessarily believe that a crime had taken place.”
Kabler testified at a hearing that he thought the baby may have been stillborn or that a medical reason may have caused the baby’s death, the judge said.
It was only after McKendree reportedly mentioned that she put the baby in a bag that Kabler realized that “something more significant may have happened, and he immediately stopped the interview,” Long said.
The interview took place in the kitchen, with McKendree leading the way and sitting “down on her own,” the judge said.
He added, “She was not coerced, threatened or forced into the kitchen. And she was not even told to go into the kitchen. She was asked.”
“Based on the totality of the circumstances, the defendant was not subject to a custodial interrogate. Hence Miranda warnings were not necessary, and the request for suppression is denied,” Long ruled.
And because she then was advised of her right to remain silent, further statements that she made at the police station also will not be suppressed, Long said.
