(July 21, 2008)—Falls County District Attorney Jody Gilliam wanted to try a former prison guard accused of stuffing a newborn baby in a toilet tank for capital murder, but a lack of evidence has forced prosecutors to accept a plea to a lesser charge.
Khaliliha Baucom of Lott was originally arrested in November 2007 on a warrant charging abuse of a corpse, which is a misdemeanor, but then she was named in a sealed indictment in December charging capital murder.
The case turned on the question of whether the newborn was still alive when it was placed in the toilet tank, but after talking to a series of experts, Gilliam determined that evidence of that was not conclusive.
Baucom was allowed to plead guilty to the original misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to two years probation.
Her other three children, of whom Child Protective Services took custody initially, will continue to live with their fathers after Baucom’s parental rights were terminated.
Police said Baucom gave birth by herself in a Marlin motel bathtub in April 2007.
Then she was taken by ambulance to a hospital after she complained of bleeding and stomach pain and then was airlifted to a Waco hospital for an emergency C-section.
When doctors discovered she had already given birth, they called the police.
Marlin officers found the baby's body in the toilet tank along with the placenta and bloody towels used to clean up the bathtub.
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