Katarina Jovanovic, has been jailed for seven and a half years after dropping her newborn daughter out of a window because ‘she was worried a baby would ruin her career’.
According to Daily Mail, the 28-year-old suspect from Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Wuerttemberg State, Germany, was was found guilty of mansla¥ghter at the Heilbronn District Court on Wednesday, July 3. Judges heard how she had given birth at home in secret 10 months ago on September 12 and then dropped her baby daughter from her apartment window almost 12 feet onto the tarmac below.
It is reported that h%rrified passersby found the minutes-old infant’s body with a sh+ttered skull underneath Jovanovic’s balcony and called the police. According to ASB Zeitung, Jovanovic admitted to the crime at the beginning of the trial in April but could not explain the moment to the court.
She also claimed she had not realised she was pregnant. But the prosecution accused her of m¥rder and of deliberately concealing her pregnancy from colleagues and neighbours. Prosecutors told the court that Jovanovic thought being a mother would spoil her career as an executive in Porsche’s legal department.
Public prosecutor Mareike Hafendoerfer said: ‘The accused was not prepared to put her life plans, especially her professional advancement, on hold for a child.
That was her decision when the baby was born, and as a result, the criteria for a m¥rder conviction are fulfilled.’
Jovanovic’s lawyers claimed that it was at most manslaghter as she had accidentally dropped the baby from her hands after giving birth alone at home without realising she had been pregnant.
Defence attorney Malte Hoech said: ‘It is a drama that affects me personally. My client did not even know that she was pregnant. When she suddenly held the bl%%dy baby in her hands, she was in an exceptional psychological situation. It was an acc+dent, she dropped the baby. How the child ended up over the windowsill remains to be determined.’
In the end, the court accepted the lesser charge of mansla*ghter but jailed her for seven and a half years, which was more than the three years the defence had demanded. Her legal team said they plan to appeal the verdict.
