Ohio woman gets 10 years for death of newborn found in plastic bag in dorm bathroom

PORTAGE COUNTY, Ohio (TCD) -- A 21-year-old Cleveland woman was sentenced to prison for the death of her newborn, who was discovered in a plastic bag in a college dormitory bathroom.

Portage County court records show Breyona Reddick was handed a 10-year minimum sentence Tuesday, June 21. WJW-TV reports she faces a maximum of 15 years.

Reddick was arrested March 24, 2020, on charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, endangering children, tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse, but in April, she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

According to WOIO-TV, cleaning crews found the child Oct. 18, 2019, in a garbage bag inside Whitcomb Hall, a dorm for freshman students at Hiram College.

Cleveland.com reports Reddick went to her doctor in June 2019 and complained of menstrual cramps, and the doctor prescribed some medicine. On Oct. 16, 2019, her birthday and days before giving birth, Reddick reportedly told family she felt constipated. Her father reportedly told her to take a laxative and drink apple juice.

When she woke up at her dorm in the middle of the night to use the restroom, her roommate reportedly came in to help because she heard Reddick in pain.

Reddick reportedly delivered the baby in the dorm’s bathroom. There reportedly were not any witnesses to hear the baby alive or crying.

Paramedics transported Reddick to a nearby hospital that day for what she allegedly believed was constipation. Reddick reportedly told doctors she was not pregnant because she was a virgin. She was committed to the hospital’s psychiatric ward for five days, where she reportedly continued to assert she had never been pregnant.

The autopsy reportedly determined the little boy died from "asphyxiation due to exposure and postpartum inattention."

According to Cleveland.com, Judge Becky Doherty told Reddick at her sentencing, "There is nothing that disturbs me more than sending a young woman to prison who should be a success story. But I also cannot overlook really the depravity that it took for you to take this child and toss him away like garbage."

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