By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – There won’t be a trial for Laura Lynn Hickey, accused of killing her premature newborn in her Centralia trailer home last spring. She pleaded guilty today.
Laura Lynn Hickey
Hickey, now 25, was about halfway through her pregnancy, according to prosecutors who said she used a serrated knife to cut off the infant’s head as it was trying to take a breath after she unexpectedly delivered it into a toilet.
She said she didn’t think it was going to live and she didn’t want it to suffer, according to charging documents.
Hickey has been jailed since March.
She pleaded guilty this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court to second-degree murder.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said, yes and no as to whether it was a plea agreement.
“I agreed to amend the charges down, (but) I reserved recommendation about the sentence,” Meyer said.
Defense attorney Ken Johnson said his client’s reasoning was, it seemed to be the appropriate thing to do under the circumstances.
“I guess my thinking is, this would have been a likely outcome if we went to trial,” Johnson said.
Her trial was set for the end of this month.
Charging documents indicate an emergency room doctor estimated Hickey was about 21 weeks along in her pregnancy when he examined her after what she initially said was a miscarriage.
The infant weighed less than a pound and was less than 10-inches long, according to Meyer who shared the numbers in grams and centimeters.
Attorney Johnson had an expert who would have testified the premature baby would not likely have survived.
Prosecutors initially charged Hickey with first-degree murder, but the agreement the lawyers reached left her pleading guilty to second-degree murder with an aggravating factor of the victim being being particularly vulnerable.
That means a judge will be able to – if he chooses – go above the standard sentence called for in second-degree murder.
The plea also included a deadly weapon enhancement, providing for a mandatory extra two years in prison.
The maximum possible penalty is life behind bars.
Meyer said this afternoon he has not decided how much time he will recommend Hickey spend in prison.
He called it a case where justice will be served, as both murder one and murder two are class A felonies and he’s free to recommend any length of sentence he wants.
Johnson said he will ask for as low a sentence possible given the circumstances.
Although his client was found competent by state mental health doctors to stand trial, another expert would have testified her mental state was substantially diminished, for a number of reasons, according to Johnson.
“In other words, she could not think very clearly,” Johnson said. “It was a horrendous situation, she was in shock,” he said. “She passed out at one point, losing blood. It was a nightmare”
“She feels very bad about what happened,” he said. “She made that very clear on the record today,” he said.
It was early on the morning of March 2; neighbors had called 911 after hearing calls for help coming from Hickey’s home at the Peppertree Motor Inn and RV Park on Alder Street, she was taken to the hospital and then police found the deceased male baby in a Tupperware container under the kitchen sink.
She reportedly told police she used methamphetamine two days before the incident and had been awake since then. The state had previously taken three of her children out of her home.
Hickey’s step-father puts the blame directly on her drug use.
“The girl was not in her right mind, drugs took over her life,” Donald Burgess Sr. said. “It’s a bad thing that happened here. It’s torn the family apart.”
Burgess said he’s spoken to his daughter as she’s contemplated a plea agreement. He wasn’t present in court today, but spoke to her later in the day.
She called me crying, he said.
“I told her, just pray to God, and what God thinks you deserve, that’s what you’ll get.”
Sentencing is scheduled for the morning on Feb. 22.
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