A Detroit-area prosecuting attorney says a woman let her newborn die in a garage rather than allow him to go into foster care.
The allegation against Angela Alexie came Wednesday during opening arguments in her trial on murder and child abuse charges in Macomb County Circuit Court.
Authorities accuse the 24-year-old, who has three other children in foster care, of giving birth in an Eastpointe garage in December 2014 and leaving the boy whose frozen body was discovered coming down a conveyor at a local recycling center a month later, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Assistant Prosecutor William Cataldo says Alexie hid her pregnancy and considered the child a "dirty little secret" and "a road block to her social life."
Cataldo said Alexie said in statements she was too injured to go to the fire department to turn in the baby. However, she sent a text to someone asking what bar they were meeting at, and took selfies showing weight loss after the baby's birth, Cataldo alleged, according to the report.
Defense attorney Steve Kaplan counters Alexie has "cognitive challenges." He told jurors she should be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
"I'm not saying she's a hero," Kaplan said jurors, according to the Detroit Free Press. "Did Angela Alexie knowingly create a risk of great bodily harm? She's guilty of many things. She's not guilty of felony murder."
