The long, sad drama of the baby in the trunk is over. Almost.
Mia Sardella, the young Drexel Hill woman who gave birth to a baby, then stuffed its body in a duffel bag and placed it in the trunk of her car, entered a plea in the case Tuesday.
Sardella entered a no-contest plea to charges of involuntary manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, and concealing the death of a child.
When charges were first announced in the case, Sardella was hit with a first-degree murder charge after the county medical examiner ruled the case a homicide, that the baby had been born alive and the infant’s death was caused by asphyxiation. That charge was eventually withdrawn by the D.A.’s office and the third-degree charge put in its place. The plea deal takes the third-degree murder charge off the table.
The legal semantics aside, Sardella is admitting her role in the death of her baby.
If that were not controversial enough, the case has been a lightning rod for the way the investigation was handled, the amount of time taken to file charges in the case, and the fact that Sardella remained free on electronic home monitoring for most of that time.
Critics insist Sardella’s family – her grandfather is a well-known CEO of a financial firm – managed to get her a better version of justice than perhaps someone of lesser means would receive. Even this newspaper has been accused of “tiptoeing” around the case because of the family’s so-called “connections.”
In the end, none of that seemed to help Mia Sardella.
She very likely will be sentenced to at least some jail time. In a similar case, where a young woman in Ridley gave birth, then placed the baby in a duffel bag and hung it out the window, a similar plea was entered to a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
The woman was sentenced to eight to 23 months in prison. Of that, 60 days were served on weekends, with the remaining six months on home monitoring.
Mia Sardella is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 22.
Ironically, that’s two years to the day that charges were filed in this case.
The wheels of justice do indeed turn slowly. But they don’t stop. They probably don’t always work to everyone’s satisfaction, but justice has been served in the case of Mia Sardella.
Mia Sardella, the young Drexel Hill woman who gave birth to a baby, then stuffed its body in a duffel bag and placed it in the trunk of her car, entered a plea in the case Tuesday.
Sardella entered a no-contest plea to charges of involuntary manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, and concealing the death of a child.
When charges were first announced in the case, Sardella was hit with a first-degree murder charge after the county medical examiner ruled the case a homicide, that the baby had been born alive and the infant’s death was caused by asphyxiation. That charge was eventually withdrawn by the D.A.’s office and the third-degree charge put in its place. The plea deal takes the third-degree murder charge off the table.
The legal semantics aside, Sardella is admitting her role in the death of her baby.
If that were not controversial enough, the case has been a lightning rod for the way the investigation was handled, the amount of time taken to file charges in the case, and the fact that Sardella remained free on electronic home monitoring for most of that time.
Critics insist Sardella’s family – her grandfather is a well-known CEO of a financial firm – managed to get her a better version of justice than perhaps someone of lesser means would receive. Even this newspaper has been accused of “tiptoeing” around the case because of the family’s so-called “connections.”
In the end, none of that seemed to help Mia Sardella.
She very likely will be sentenced to at least some jail time. In a similar case, where a young woman in Ridley gave birth, then placed the baby in a duffel bag and hung it out the window, a similar plea was entered to a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
The woman was sentenced to eight to 23 months in prison. Of that, 60 days were served on weekends, with the remaining six months on home monitoring.
Mia Sardella is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 22.
Ironically, that’s two years to the day that charges were filed in this case.
The wheels of justice do indeed turn slowly. But they don’t stop. They probably don’t always work to everyone’s satisfaction, but justice has been served in the case of Mia Sardella.
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