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The attorney for a mother accused of discarding her infant son in a Fort Lauderdale hotel trash bin said her client is “severely mentally ill” and suggested she spend time in a residential treatment facility rather than Broward County Jail.
Public defender Melisa McNeill represented 33-year-old Alexandria Sladon-Marler Tuesday, who faces charges including aggravated manslaughter and child neglect. In bond court, McNeill said family members tried to get help for Sladon-Marler during the woman's pregnancy.
“This could have been 100 percent prevented,” she told NBCMiami.com. “The problem is, if you’re mentally ill, you have a hard time getting help, but when you’re mentally ill and you’re poor, you’re even at a bigger disadvantage.”
McNeill added that Sladon-Marler was “in complete denial that she was ever pregnant.”
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“The travesty here is for this child that is no longer with us, but also for any mental health consumer in Broward County or the United States that they are not getting the help they need,” McNeill said.
Read the original story on NBCMiami.com
The attorney plans to present Sladon-Marler’s family ties to South Florida as well as her mental health history to Judge John Hurley Wednesday. She said she will also ask for a reduced bond for her client.
Reading from a warrant, Hurley said Sladon-Marler went to the Broward General Medical Center on Aug. 10 where a doctor realized she had just given birth. Sladon-Marler told doctors she'd recently had an abortion and the symptoms were a result of the procedure, but a medical evaluation didn't support her story, police said.
Previous report: Florida mother accused of discarding infant in trash bin
Doctors told police Sladon-Marler had recently given birth but were unsure of the baby's whereabouts, police said.
Hurley said police tracked Sladon-Marler’s whereabouts to a hotel, where cameras revealed she had left a room with “something bundled up in some towels and sheets” and “placed something into a trash bin or a trash receptacle.”
When officers went to the Fort Lauderdale Beach Place Hotel and Suites, where Sladon-Marler had been transported from, they noticed an unusual amount of blood throughout her hotel room, police said.
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The dead baby was later found "wrapped in a towel and placed inside of a pillowcase" in a Dumpster at the hotel, according to a police report.
Authorities said the child appeared full term and was delivered alive, according to Hurley. They also said the umbilical cord had been torn and “not severed with a cutting-type instrument.”
Aggravated manslaughter is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
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How sad. Unfortunately, many people who need mental health care don't get it until something happens since it's hard to force an unwilling person into treatment. Poor baby, and no matter what happens from here on out the woman is in a mess. If she does get treatment she will have to deal with what she did if she is stabilized and if she is thrown in jail she will be left to be sick. The system sucks, it sucks she did that, and I'm sure the thread will be all kinds of violence wished on her and blame placed all over.
Oh please it took me 2 seconds to figure she had a problem in the head, she dumped her kid in the trash you think she is right in the head, doesn't mean we should give her a legal break or let her have children ever again! Throw her aZZ in jail and let her mental self sit there no sympathy any more for these type or their attorneys!
No wonder people associate the name "Bubba" with an undereducated hayseed. Not surprising that it takes only "2 seconds" to figure it out when your mind is made up and closed.
Yeah, "American Exceptionalism" means we really don't care about helping anyone unless they have a large bank account.
Here's what saddens my heart: A poor, mentally disturbed adult is not even given a fraction of the concern that a recently conceived embryo is. Or a young child who is in desperate need of healthcare and has parents unable to afford proper care is practically ignored; yet the same child, upon conception, would get more attention if the parents considered abortion.
I feel great sorrow at the thought of abortion, but I should feel more emotional about sufffering lives already here.
Everybody is so sure because her lawyer said so, just to get her off!!!!!
OK lets give her a break, lets treat her, she can get treatment, be done with it in 3, 4 years and start having baby's again maybe this time she will have learned not to throw the kid in the trash. She'll throw it in the garbage dump where they may never find it. How will you feel about her then. Ya I thought so, you think they are going to stop her from breading, that's against her rights just ask her lawyer. You can't take her children away, that is against a family's rights you can't force them into protection, as long as they rule she is no harm to that infant, not the previous one, can't do that either, how you feeling now. Lets help her have more kids come on she can do this again with our help. Society owes this to her don't we!
Due to Ronald Reagan's patience rights law family members can't force their loved ones to get help.
Ever notice when a woman kills her children she get's almost no jail time. When a man kills one of his kids he's put away for half his life or more. If a woman teacher sleeps with the foot ball team she gets five years a man sleeps with one girl they put him away for 15 years. It would be nice to see equal justice for a change
fasttime
Cut the hyperbole. Your allegations are too absurd to be taken seriously.
don97524 Google it you will find it is true
KILL HER WORTHLESS POS A$$. This Bitvh and others like her are useless humans breathing the air of decent people and need to be done away with asap.
Mentally ill is a bunch of Shvt her family and attorneys came up with and are trying to use to save her worthless POS A$$.
Any Law Enforcement Officer will take any person to the mental ward of the local hospital to be committed and kept for 72 hours of evaluation and a danger to themselves and others hold - IF anyone calls and tells Police that any other person is a danger to themselves and or others. So there is no way this Bitvhes family members tried to get her help. All they had to do was dial 911 and say she was a danger to them or herself and she would have been put in a mental ward and treated if she was in fact, mentally ill. And of course, her family knew this and this is why they never called - because she has no mental problems.
She is just another fng whore who got pregnant and did not want the baby. Period.
No mentally ill person would have been able to lie to the doctors, etc. at the hospital like she did.
AND - THE DOCTORS AT THAT HOSPITAL did not think she was mentally ill or they would have had her committed to a mental ward immediately. They knew she was sane and that is why they called the police to have her arrested for MURDERING HER BABY.
Leave her in jail till trial, let the jury decide - which I hope is to sentence her to death, and let her sit on death row till she is given the death cocktail. A mental health specialist at the jail can determine if she ever needs meds or not.
I really wish all States used the Electric Chair - it was a much better punishment for people like this Bitvh. Old Sparky really did FRY the basturds and bitvhes. Google those killed by Old Sparky and look at their autopsy photos. For example - Google - "Top of the Skull Fried with High Voltage Which Electrocuted Ted Bundy" just for one.
This POS Bitvh deserves the same death and sooner better than later. And of course she needs to be sterilized before going to prison so she does not get knocked up by some male prison guard and has another baby that society will have to pay for and take care of.
don i think its time to come out from where you lack the everyday news. women usually recieve about 1/4-1/3 the punishment a male does. especially when it comes to rapeing minors.
but wondering where the equal rights groups are when these people are sentenced.
Alexandria Sladon-Marler
well lets see ......she has a hyphenated name. did she have a hyphenated husband to go with it? she was after all pregnant. so where was MR. Marler?
My daughter has a hyphenated last name, for my maiden name and my husband's last name. I knew a lot of kids with hyphenated last names when I was growing up. If she had a severe mental illness, it is possible that she has no idea who the father is.
After my divorce, my daughter asked for her name to be hyphenated.
Come on Scooter; She's got a rap sheet a mile long, obviously trying to self-medicate her way through an untreated, mental illness, killed/didn't protect the life of her child, and you're going on a hyphen kick?
THAT'S what set you off and made you decide she was a bad person?? A hyphenated name?
She needs treatment, all right. I suggest a cranium-ectomy.
I have hyphenated name. Doesn't mean anything. Anyone can pop out a kid without a "dad." I'm sure this lady was in this alone. If she did have a man..I could see why he wouldn't want to stick around with the nut bag. Anyone that would do this had to be sick..
The fact that her lawyer says she is mentally ill (that's no surprise) does not negate the fact this woman slaughtered her own baby. She can receive treatment in jail rather than counting on her to get it for herself if she is bailed out. Intentionally killing a newborn baby is not excused because she is "sick" (or so the lawyer says). She killed another human and needs to face the consequences of her act. Treatment is fine, but after she is treated, she can rationally think about her crime in PRISON!
I agree... but had she killed the baby inside the womb just seconds before delivery it is perfectly legal in this country. I'm pro-life and both instances make me want to vomit. Life is life regardless of who it is an incovenience for.
SEVERELY depressed women when they are pregnant and left to fend for themselves often become clinically insane, She reached out for help but it seems she might have failed to get it.A little compassion is needed here to we know the details.!!
It doesn't actually say that she intentionally killed the baby, all it says is that the baby was born alive. The article also states that the umbilical cord was torn with a crude cutting implement. If she was mentally ill, or even lacking in basic education, it is possible the baby died because she didn't tie off the umbilical cord before she cut it, which would have led to the baby bleeding to death. She may not even realize why the baby died. Then again, no matter how this baby died, if the mother is off her rocker in a bad enough way, she will probably never fully understand what has happened.
"killing the baby inside the womb just seconds before delivery" is not perfectly legal, NikkiS1979. Either you know that and are a liar or you don't know that and are just woefully misinformed. Which one is it?
Just a couple of questions I'd like to know the answers to:
1. Where was the placenta since "They also said the umbilical cord had been torn and “not severed with a cutting-type instrument.”?
2. Why did she "tear" the umbilical cord? Why not wrap EVERYTHING up in the pillowcase and blanket with the baby?
I know stupid and crazy aren't the same...but it doesn't add up.
I'm sorry but her attorney claims because she is poor and mentally ill she shouldn't be guilty of murdering her baby, but she got a hotel room and gave birth and then hid the baby, she absolutely knew what she was doing. There are so many options today for you to give up your baby and not be charged that this should not happen anymore. All she had to do was walk into a hospital , give birth and sign the baby over to the state. Mentally ill people have babies all the time. She's not mental just plain evil.
She was competent enough to lie and say she had an abortion. She was competent enough to hide what she had done. What about the people who knew she was pregnant? Does she have mental issues? Obviouisly yes, but not enough to know right from wrong.
As Susan correctly noted, she knew right from wrong and tried to conceal the crime. The other mental health issue courts look at is, "are they capable of participating in their own defense." Her efforts at concealing the crime also indicate that she can. But I would rather have a guilty plea and quick sentencing.
How do you consume mental health in Broward County?
Public defender Melisa McNeill is mentally ill. She is completely delusional. She couldn't anyone out of a paper bag.
I honestly believe mental illness should not even be brought up at trial. A trial is to determine whether she committed the crime she is accused of or not. It should not be used as a way to get a "get out of jail free" for her crime. The time to consider her mental state is during sentencing. A judge can order her sent to a mental hospital and then prison or straight to prison.
She meticulously covered up the birth of her child, disposed of the body with the intent that she not be discovered, then made willful attempts to cover her tracks with lies that she knew not to be true. She is guilty and should get put in front of a firing squad but apparently a child's life is not as important as that of an adult.
I agree... I say this all the time about abortion. But for some reason people in this country only think that human life is valuable after... no wait.. the majority of this country doesn't think human life but their own is valuable.
I don't think that leaving blood all over a hotel room could in any way be described as "meticulous". Making judgements about what she knew to be true, without even knowing or talking to her, is ridiculous. If she is mentally unbalanced, it is possible that she told the story she WANTED to be true. You often find this phenomenon in small children (and the mentally ill), who say what they wished was true in hopes that it will become true. Mental illness is a bad business, and I will withhold my judgements until we know more about what happened. At least until autopsy reports are revealed and can state how the baby really died. I have known people with SEVERE mental illness. One woman we referred to only as "The Bunny Lady" who lived in my apartment building when I was in college. She had a degree from Yale, and worked as a successful attorney. Until she went completely schizophrenic. Her family would come by to stock her fridge and check on her, but she spent most of her day standing on the sidewalk talking to a yellow stuffed bunny. You cannot judge mental illness through a lens of sanity. It just doesn't work.
@NikkiS1979
So let me get this straight, earlier you state that 'Life is life regardless of who it is an incovenience for' implying that all life is sacred and should be preserved. Yet you completely agree with the woman being killed by firing squad? Oh the hypocrisy.
I'm pro-choice, but I think things get a little dicey after 5-6 weeks of pregnancy (question of whether or not the fetus is actually considered a 'person'). I look at it scientifically, like when the baby forms a brain or when the heart starts pumping blood for the first time. I guess it's all dependent on what you consider to be a person.
Anyway, off-topic rant aside, what the woman did was abhorrent. I mean, being in denial for so many months and then discarding the baby as if it were trash? To be honest I hope she is insane, as I don't see how any sane person could do such a thing when there are so many morally-just options right in front of them.
I call foul on the attorney. Nice try but no one is buying it. Court of public opinion is not buying it and neither will a jury.
A jury exonerated Casey Anthony, and the court of public opinion doesn't count for squat.
what's the big deal? women are allowed to abort babies at any stage of pregnancy and call it 'choice.' (except the baby doesn't get to choose). or let's call it 'reproductive health care.' oops, the baby didn't get health care...it got killed. okay, so i'm a bit off topic. but if a woman has her unborn child killed in her womb, then pulled out...that's legal. once its out, its called murder. where is the logic in that!?
Mr. Kicking -
It was a live birth.
Gee, babies killed when they are adults is called the death penalty AKA Capital Punishment and supported by anti-choice folks.
It's all in the timing, WisePati.
First of all most abortions occur within the first 5-8 weeks, while it is a fetus or zygote-no larger then a bean,with no brain.Secondly-abortions performed after 20 weeks are only done when the woman's life is at stake,the woman carries a non-viable fetus/baby,the woman/girl was a victim of rape/incest and her pregnancy was not discovered until after 20 weeks.These types of abortions are done in hospitals,have to be cleared by 2 doctors and are rare-however,I'd like you to consider,before you condemn the fact that they are legal
,if your mentally retarded sister was raped in her care facility or at her school and she ended up pregnant...would you support abortion..
if your mother was fighting breast cancer and discovered while on chemo that she is pregnant,and continuing chemo will most likely kill the fetus....would you support abortion
.....your wife ends up with an ectopic pregnancy,a pregnancy outside the womb....would you support abortion...
at 7month you and your spouse are told your baby you so waited for will die within hours of birth,in excruciating pain....would you support abortion
......many genetic defects are not discovered until later in pregnancy,because tests can not be performed earlier,same with sonogram results...many pregnancies that are results of rape or incest are not discovered until the person shows,either because they don't understand or want to hide what happened to them.....do you honestly believe a woman would wait to have an abortion,knowingly, until after 20 weeks unless she really wanted the pregnancy or had no other choice?
Why aren't you trolling your junk under all of the murder stories? Take your pro-life, wanna force everyone to your way of thinking butt to a story about abortions. You're off topic.
She hid the body and lied, she knew what she was doing, the "crazy" defense got old in the 90's.
It was a live birth. None of your junk is relevant on either side.
her lawyer should spend time in jail with her to make sure she is treated properly...what b/s..typical lawyer..she is caught red handed but not her fault...probably not her fault she got pregnant either.
There is consciousness of guilt here - she hid the evidence of the child and the birth by wrapping everything in towels and placing in a garbage can. She then lied about an abortion. It is reasonable to expect that if this was a product of mental illness, there would be no effort or little effort to hide this and lie about it.
As far as I am concerned, anyone who does this to a baby is mentally off but she appears to know right from wrong and deserves to be punished accordingly by going to prison, not a mental hospital.
Does this: “severely mentally ill” and suggested she spend time in a residential treatment facility rather than Broward County Jail" sound more like; needs to take a little vacation at our expense rather than go to jail, to anyone else? This: Aggravated manslaughter is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Sounds more like it and throw depraved indifference in there somewhere for another 10. She should be post menopausal by then.
I agree with comments regarding this woman's ability to know right from wrong. Was no one looking out for this woman?
IMHO if a person is truly that severely mentally ill they should be protected and removed from situations where they may become pregnant (or impregnante anyone) in the first place as they may not truly understand what it means and be able to make an informed decision.
Either way, she ought to be sterilized.
Wow.....all she needed to do was put that baby in a church, hospital, or even the front lobby at that hotel and she could have walked away........and still been a whack job but the baby would be alive! and loved by somebody.......no words.......other than i hope they tie her tubes so she can't do this again, when she gets out of the looney bin......just sayin
Lock her up, sterilize her, throw away the key. Buh bye.
Sorry, not buying the "mentally ill" story. She is apparently "with it" enough to know what an abortion is, and to lie to the doctors about havin had an abortion, apparently because she knew darn well that saying " I threw my baby into the trash" would likely get her in trouble. Mentally ill people can also be tried for manslaughter, all you really have to show is that they knew what they were doing and the difference between right and wrong. She clearly knew the difference, hence she made up a story to cover her tracks. Also, she is not so mentally ill that she's forgetting to bleach her hair blond and tweeze her eyebrows. I say she is fit to stand trial and answer for what she did. A woman like that if allowed back on the streets will continue to get pregnant and probably dump more babies into the trash.
What's the difference in this murder and abortion murders? A baby is a baby no matter!!!
What's the difference in this murder and abortion murders? A baby is a baby!
I do not see much either Nanny except that our taxes would not cover this like the libs want us to cover all their other birth control including abortion. The only difference I see is the label: abandoned, aborted.
I would be curious to know if she was mentally ill when she decided to lie down and have her child? I'm sorry. But, her mental illness is no excuse for her actions. This is a state notorious for this kind of dysfunctional behavior. People do not take teh lives of innocent children and then offer excuses. Murder is murder. If you are intelligent enough to take a life. Then, you are intelligent enough to stand trial and suffer the consequences for your actions. The best remedy for her is natural life in prison, with no medication, so she can live each and every day knowing what she did. On the other hand, she can simply take her own life.
Although I am not sure what effect it should have on this case, I am glad that this lawyer has highlighted the awful state of mental health care in this country. It brings up a valid question. If you are mentally ill, seek but cannot receive treatment, you become sicker and eventually commit a terrible crime. A crime that never would have happened if you had received appropriate care. Should those that denied you care shoulder some of the responsibility?
The big problem is in the U.S. alot of states did away with most of the mental health care. There's more money in it for the court system to allow these things to happen. Now they have someone blame to justify why they need more money and raises.
Really ppl are gonna blame it on mentally ill and health insurance come on, you killed a human you deserve to go to prison end of discussion if you never wanted to be pregnant then close your damn LEGS, or were you to mentally ill to know what sex was? Prison is the only place that we allow because otherwise i say an eye for an eye, bring back death penalty!