other pleads no contest in baby’s death
BURLINGTON – Karen Bailey, 23, Le Roy, pleaded no contest Friday to a charge of second-degree murder following the death of her newborn child.
Bailey also pleaded no contest to a count of aggravated endangerment of a child in front of Judge Phillip Fromme, chief judge of the Fourth Judicial District.
Bailey was accused of giving birth to her son, Benjamin Edward Riggs-Geisler, on April 2, 2011, while en route from Iola to her home in Le Roy, then leaving the child unattended in her car for several hours until he died.
Bailey was arrested six days later and charged with first-degree murder.
The second-degree murder charge reflects the state’s charge that Geisler’s death was from the act of “omission” and not “commission,” Coffey County Attorney Doug Witteman explained.
The second-degree charge alleged that Bailey showed “extreme indifference to the value of human life, to kill a human being,” Witteman said, but did not actually kill the infant.
“The pleas … represent an accurate application of the law to the specific facts,” Witteman said in a statement. “This … moves this case one more step toward closure for the extended members of the infant victim’s families.”
Witteman, who prosecuted the case with Assistant Attorney General Lee Davidson, said prosecutors are requesting Bailey be sentenced to the maximum 161 months in prison, a little more than 13 years, as recommended by Kansas sentencing guidelines.
Bailey will be sentenced July 5.
Mother pleads no contest in baby’s death
