NEW CASTLE Woman enters guilty plea in infant's death

FOR AP PA WIRE
Prosecutors are asking for jail time, but the woman wants probation.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A city woman accused of hiding the body of a newborn baby in her home for four months has pleaded guilty to concealing the death of a child.
Amy Page, 32, of Park Avenue appeared Tuesday before Judge Dominick Motto of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.
She pleaded guilty to concealing the death of a child in exchange for prosecutors' dropping an abuse of corpse charge.
She was arrested in December 2002 after an infant's body was turned over to police by Page and her husband. It had been wrapped in plastic and hidden in a closet since August, according to paperwork filed to support the charges.
The mother contends the child was stillborn, and when she delivered it at home, she panicked and hid the baby, court records said. Police said Page also had kept her pregnancy hidden from her husband.
Assistant District Attorney Birgitta Tolvanen said prosecutors will ask that Page be sentenced to 30 days to 24 months in jail, followed by three years' probation.
Page's attorney, Dennis A. Elisco, said he plans to ask the judge for probation or house arrest.
Judge Motto set Page's sentencing for Sept. 2.
Page would have faced up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted on both charges at trial, Tolvanen said.