Jada McClain, 18 pleaded guilty to suffocating her newborn son last March and then discarding his body in a dumpster with help from her boyfriend. McClain will be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on a first-degree manslaughter charge, with parole eligibility after eight and a half years. Quaimere Mohammed her 19-year-old boyfriend, also pleaded guilty Monday, to third-degree desecration of human remains, and will serve up to five years in prison.
In court, McClain confessed to delivering the baby alone in her parent’s bathroom alone around 4 a.m. on March 29th, close to two weeks after she turned 18. She placed Legend, her son, on a bed and pressed on his chest until he stopped breathing.
Thomas Catley, McClain’s attorney, said he would seek less time in prison at her sentencing, claiming her “extreme youth” played a role in the crime.
“She is extremely remorseful,” Catley said after the hearing.
Quaimere Mohammed confessed that McClain and he spent the evening of March 28, 2019 together, and then he went home and fell asleep.
The following morning, he woke up to texts from McClain saying she had given birth and the baby was not breathing, Mohammed confessed in court. Previously, Prosecutors said McClain sent Mohammed a message that read “I did it, baby.”
Mohammed was picked up by McClain from his Asbury Park house and told him that the newborn was in the back seat of the car wrapped in towels, Mohammed confesses. They drove to the Washington Village Apartments in Asbury Park and threw the baby into a dumpster nearby on Monroe Avenue.
McClain told investigators that she hid her pregnancy from her family. She only told Mohammed, who she met as a sophomore while they were both attending Neptune High School.
“This case is a horrible tragedy. An infant is dead and two young people are going to prison. None of this should have happened. Young persons who are not yet ready for parenthood need to understand that there are safe, legal and completely confidential ways to give up custody of a newborn,” Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said in a news statement.
