Seaside woman pleads no contest in newborn’s death

A Seaside woman who told officers she’d allowed her newborn baby to die and then buried the body has pleaded no contest to felony child abuse and involuntary manslaughter.

Jennifer Cecilia Warren, 41, called Seaside police in February 2013 to complain about being harassed by her neighbors. During her interview with officers, Warren told them she gave birth to a child in her bathtub at home in 2011 and didn’t want the child. She told officers she left the infant in the half-filled tub until the baby stopped moving, then wrapped the body in a sweatshirt and placed the baby in a box under her home.

Police were able to recover the baby’s remains two years later and a forensic pathologist determined the infant was near or at full-term at the time of death.

Warren is expected to be sentenced to 11 years in prison at her sentencing date on Nov. 20, Monterey County prosecutors said.