The appropriate sentence for a teenager who was convicted of killing her baby stumped an Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge.
“This is one of the most, if not the most, troubling cases I?ve had to experience in my 13 years on the bench,” Judge Nancy Davis-Loomis said.
“Teenage pregnancies … happen thousands of times a year, but fortunately they rarely have the disastrous end this had.”
Davis-Loomis turned over custody of Megan Patria, 19, of Arnold, to the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and ordered her committed to a non-community residential program. She also required Patria to continue psychiatric treatment and possibly require medication.
The department has until Oct. 26 to decide in which juvenile center to place her.
“We are very limited in the state of Maryland regarding juvenile facilities,” Deputy State?s Attorney Laura Kiessling said.
“We?d like her to be detained until she?s 21 [the maximum time to detain a juvenile].”
But the most provocative issue was the denial of Patria and her mother, Davis-Loomis said.
“This tragic event did not happen just in the few hours you gave birth. It happened over those few months you chose not to confide in anyone,” she told Patria, who hid her face in her hands and wiped away tears.
Davis-Loomis suggested family counseling for Patria and her mother, who “displayed denial” of her daughter?s pregnancy and even went to Broadneck High School in Anne Arundel, where the mother complained to administrators about false pregnancy rumors.
Patria told police she hid the pregnancy from her parents because she was afraid of getting in trouble and decided to deliver the baby on her own with the help of a friend.
She tried to have a miscarriage by smoking, drinking alcohol and jokingly asking a friend to hit her, court documents said.
Patria?s case was heard in Juvenile Court because she was 17 in December 2005 when she delivered her full-term baby, put him in the toilet and then, believing he was dead, placed his body in a bag.
The autopsy revealed the baby was born alive but died from asphyxiation either from drowning in the toilet or suffocating in the bag.
Patria was found guilty in August of second-degree murder.
If tried as an adult, Patria could have faced up to 30 years in prison on the murder charge alone, according to the State?s Attorney?s Office. She also was charged with manslaughter and child abuse resulting in death.
