Features

New charges in abandonment case

The Associated Press
Saturday December 30, 2000

SACRAMENTO – A 26-year-old Roseville woman accused of abandoning a newborn daughter in November also faces charges that she abandoned a newborn son nearly two years ago, officials said. 

Placer County District Attorney Bradford R. Fenocchio filed criminal charges Thursday against Stephanie Anne Winship for leaving “Baby Autumn” outside a Roseville hospital Nov. 24. 

She faces a felony count of child abandonment and misdemeanor child endangerment in Placer County in that case. 

Winship is also believed to be the mother of a baby boy found on the front steps of a Sacramento County home two years ago. She is under investigation by Sacramento County authorities for the unsolved January 1999 “Baby Jonathan” case. 

“We believe there is sufficient information for filing a criminal complaint against (Stephanie) Winship,” said Lt. John McGinness, Sacramento County sheriff’s spokesman. 

A person who answered the phone at the Winship home, as well as her lawyer, declined to comment on the charges. 

The mother’s identity remained a mystery until Roseville police received an anonymous tip two weeks ago, Detective Charles Veilleux said. 

Winship, who is married, concealed the latest pregnancy from her husband, family and friends, police said. 

Kevin Burdick, Winship’s court-appointed lawyer, declined to offer any details about her situation or potential defense. 

“I haven’t been able to talk to her in depth myself at this point,” Burdick said. “I don’t have the police report. I don’t even have the information that it’s been established that this baby is her baby. I want her side, eventually, to come out, and it will come out. But today is not the right time.” 

On Jan. 22, 1999, William E. Spoonemore, 80, who lived across the street from Winship, found a newborn boy wrapped in a blue towel. 

The infant was rushed to the hospital and released days later to an emergency foster home. Baby Jonathan was later adopted by a family that wishes to remain anonymous. 

“The good news is both children appear to be doing well physically and with the love and nurturing of good, supportive families, will continue to do so,” McGinness said. 

McGinness said the case will soon be referred to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution. 

“Baby Autumn” was found about six weeks before a new state law takes effect that allows parents to leave their newborns inside hospitals without being prosecuted.  

The law also provides for a two-week cooling off period to give a parent an opportunity to retrieve a baby previously left at a hospital. 

But the law doesn’t go into effect until Monday.