MANCHESTER, NH – Alexandra Eckersley was found guilty of three charges related to the abandonment of her newborn infant but acquitted of two felony charges accusing her of second-degree assault.
Eckersley took a deep breath when on Friday afternoon the Hillsborough County Superior Court North jury foreman answered, “Not guilty,” twice when the court clerk asked him for their verdict on the second-degree assault charges. Those charges alleged she caused the infant to suffer hypothermia and respiratory distress by abandoning him in a tent in 15-degree weather.
But then, when the clerk asked for the jury’s verdict on the remaining charges – falsifying physical evidence, reckless conduct and endangering the welfare of a child – and he answered guilty for each one, her face fell.
Both she and her mother, hugging each other, “sobbed” as they left the courtroom and went into an anteroom. Through their attorneys, she and other family members declined to comment.
“The important thing is our client is doing well and going home to her son,” said Public Defender Jordan Strand.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated a total of 11 ½ hours over three days after listening to testimony over 3 ½ days.
The falsifying physical evidence charge is a class B felony carrying a sentence of 3 ½ to 7 years in prison, The other charges, reckless conduct and endangering the welfare of a child, are both misdemeanors.
Eckersley, 27, was accused of abandoning her premature newborn son in a makeshift tent in freezing conditions on Dec. 26, 2022, and misdirecting emergency workers searching for him. Eckersley testified that she did not know she was pregnant and that she didn’t bring the infant with her when she went to the West Side Ice Area to get a signal to call 911 because “I thought he was dead.”
Her boyfriend, George Theberge, had told her the infant did not have a pulse, she testified. He fled the area when the ambulance arrived on scene.
Eckersley, who testified in her own defense, said she told the 911 operator that the baby could be found in Goffstown on the other side of the trestle bridge and that it had cried, an indicator he was alive. However, the 911 operator did not relay that information to first responders and instead told them the infant was not viable.
First Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Shawn Sweeney, who was not present for the verdict, said in his closing that when the 911 call came in, it was a medical emergency for Eckersley who had just given birth. There was no need to alert police. However, once it was learned an infant was lost in the woods, it required police involvement and ultimately, Eckersley’s arrest for abandoning the baby.
The defense said Eckersley told both the 911 operator and a police officer where the baby could be found – on the Goffstown side of a trestle bridge off the West Side rail trail. And, according to Public Defender Kim Kossick, Eckersley told the EMT and police officer William Collins when he arrived on scene that she heard the baby crying when it was born, indicating it was alive.
However, the 911 operator, Kossick said, told firefighters the infant was not viable and never relayed that information to police.
The defense said no one was listening to Eckersley.
Prosecutors maintained Eckersley never told them exactly where the baby was and that, at the scene, she directed them to the area of the ball fields about a half mile from the makeshift tent. Eckersley told emergency workers she was coming back from the store when she unexpectedly gave birth near the ballfields in the area of the West Side Ice Arena, about a half mile from the makeshift tent where the baby was born.
Rescuers searched that area for about an hour before Eckersley led them to the tent and the infant.
Eckersley, while being treated for heavy bleeding for the second time in the ambulance, said something “clicked in her head” and she told them she would lead them to the tent.
Eckersley has a long, complicated history of mental illness, according to a forensic psychologist who testified at the trial. She had attended structured schools, where she never took a sex education class, and has been treated in psychiatric hospitals on four occasions, the last time after giving birth.
At the age of 20, she was in a residential placement that she left after meeting an older man in NH. She came to live with him and became homeless.
On Dec, 26, 2022, she had been without a home for five years.
Rescuers found the infant on the tent floor suffering from hypothermia and in respiratory distress. A video clip, from the body worn camera of Officer William Collins, was played for the jury. It recorded fellow Officer Joseph Vitale finding the baby.
“Oh, Jesus Christ. It’s here. Yeah, it’s still alive. It’s still moving,” Vitale is heard saying. EMTs began CPR on the child and while an ambulance was called to the scene, they opted to take the baby to the hospital via a fire truck that was already there. En route to Catholic Medical Center, the baby opened its eyes.
At Catholic Medical Center, medical personnel determined the baby’s body temperature was 82.5 degrees.
Hours later, after the infant was stabilized, he was transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon for further treatment. The child, who Eckersley named Edward Ruth after her great grandparents, recovered. Now 19 months old, he lives with Eckersley and her mother in Massachusetts.
Defense attorneys maintain Eckersley committed no crime. “Giving birth while homeless is not a crime,” Kossick told the jury in her closing argument.
If anyone should have been charged, she said, it was George Theberge, Eckersley’s 45-year-old boyfriend who went back to the tent three times. He had the habit of turning off the heater because, Eckersley testified, he got too hot. She, on the other hand, was always cold and would turn it back on.
Eckersley is the adopted daughter of Hall of Fame Red Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley. He attended the trial this week but was not present for the verdict.
Eckersely is expected to be sentenced in about 60 days.