Woman who tried to drown her newborn baby in McDonald's restroom skips jail time and gets fours years supervised probation
Prosecutors have said a 27-year-old woman from Redwood City who held her newborn baby face down in a toilet right after giving birth at a McDonald's restaurant restroom will not serve any time in prison.
According to Mercury News, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Garratt sentenced Sarah Jane Lockner on Friday to four years of supervised probation. In addition, Lockner was also ordered to complete parenting classes, stated a KTLA report.
While the 27-year-old was initially charged with attempted murder, she later pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of felony child endangerment after Judge Garratt said she would consider imposing a lighter sentence.
Lockner was working as a cashier at a McDonald’s on the 100th block of Chestnut Street in Redwood City when she gave birth to a baby boy on September 4, 2017. She went to the restroom multiple times saying she had a stomach ache.
When a co-worker noticed blood on the floor of the toilet, Lockner said she was having a "heavy period".
During another trip, a second colleague went to the restroom to check on Lockner and was shocked to see a newborn facedown in the toilet with Lockner's hand on his back. The coworker later told authorities she heard the toilet flush.
The coworker also said Lockner urged them not to alert authorities, but they informed authorities anyway. Responding officers rushed the baby to a hospital after he was found to be not breathing and had no pulse. Doctors immediately placed the child in a medically induced coma and treated him. He has since fully recovered from the ordeal.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe revealed in an interview earlier this year that the child was under the care of his father's aunt and was living a normal life.
According to prosecutors, the bathroom birth was not the first for Lockner, who had delivered a baby at home about five years ago. Although there was nothing criminal about it, she reportedly said she did not know she was pregnant either time, according to KLTA.