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Mother recycles Baby

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STOP HAVING UNPROTECTED SEX IF YOU DON'T WANT KIDS, YOU FUCKING MORON


Angela Alexie's days-old baby - left in an Eastpointe garage after his birth - was 15 feet away from a door that led to warmth and a phone the mother could have used to call someone.

"She did nothing. She let that child freeze to death," Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo said today before the 24-year-old mother was bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court on felony murder and first-degree child abuse charges in her son's death in December. "He died when there were a number of ways to save him."

Cataldo's comments came after an afternoon of emotional testimony during Alexie's preliminary exam in 38th District Court in Eastpointe, in which Cyndee Johnson tearfully testified about finding the frozen baby in the fetal position come down a conveyor belt while working at ReCommunity Recycling in Roseville.

"When I first saw, it scared me. I jumped back. I moved back. I realized this was an actual baby," testified Johnson, 57, who said she had only worked at the recycling center about two weeks before the baby was discovered during her night shift in mid-January.

"It just grabbed my heart," she said through tears. "I knew something wasn't right."

The baby – called baby John Doe in court but named Henry Alexander Macomb by morgue workers – died about 11 p.m. Christmas Eve. His cause of death is pending toxicology tests, but Macomb County Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz testified that he believes hypothermia played a "significant role" in the death and that the baby took breaths and "would have had a heartbeat."

Roseville Police said Alexie, who has three other children in foster care, had the baby on her own in the unheated residential garage on Gascony in Eastpointe, where she was staying, about 6:30 a.m. Dec. 22.

She used her teeth to cut the umbilical cord, Roseville Police Detective Brad McKenzie testified.

He testified that she said she wrapped the baby in a towel, put him on a couch cushion on the floor of the garage and checked on him every two to three hours. However, she slept in the house. Alexie told McKenzie that she tried to breastfeed the baby, but he wouldn't latch on. She didn't bring him formula and kept him in the garage, which had an open window, McKenzie testified.

McKenzie testified that Alexie, during questioning by police, indicated she was waiting until she had enough strength to turn the baby over to the fire department.

He testified that after she realized the baby died, she left him in the garage for more than week. Then, she put his body in a plastic bag and set it between the garbage and recycling bins outside the house. She said she intended to bury the baby in the yard, he testified.

The day that Alexie put the body in the plastic bag, McKenzie testified, she posted "RIP baby" on her Facebook page. She told him, he testified, that was for another baby, a friend's baby.

Someone, Alexie said she doesn't know who, put the baby in the recycling bin that was then picked up at the curb, police have said.

The baby's body went to the recycling center, where Johnson – working her minimum-wage, 4 p.m.-2:30 a.m. shift – spotted him.

"I said, 'That's a real baby. Stop the line! Stop the line!" she testified.

She said the child had a little bit of debris on him. He was cold, blue and purple "with snow on its hair, snow." She said he was curled up like he was trying to stay warm.

Johnson removed a black T-shirt stuck on the baby's foot. She covered him with a blanket.

Among the items on the conveyor belt at the same time: a green volleyball, several pieces of mail and plastic, she testified.

Alexie did not appear to look at the four prosecution witnesses, including Amy Lesniak of Warren, who is caring for two of Alexie's children and who provided the tip to Roseville police that the mother of the dumped baby may be Alexie.

Lesniak testified that she suspected Alexie might be pregnant with her fourth child when she failed to show up for weekly visits with her oldest two children, claiming stomach pain and the flu. When she heard last month that Alexie told someone she miscarried, Lesniak went to the Roseville police station, believing Alexie could have been the mother of the baby found at the recycling center.

Alexie admitted to McKenzie during an interview that she concealed her latest pregnancy, not telling anyone including her boyfriend. He said she was "embarrassed," didn't know who the father was and had issues in the past with Children's Protective Services.

Alexie cried during a break in the exam. Her sister, who has attended all the court hearings, cried during the testimony.

Alexie's attorney, Steven Kaplan, asked for Judge Carl Gerds to bind over his client on lesser charges of second-degree child abuse and involuntary manslaughter.

Gerds stuck with the original charges and set her arraignment for March 2 in Macomb County Circuit Court.

Cataldo said Alexie offered her son no comfort, food, warmth or protection from the elements.

"The child had no chance of living. These are intentional acts. Slow killing, fast killing. Killing is killing. What's the difference? Stupidity is not a defense," the prosecutor said. "She didn't care before. She didn't care after. She only cares now because she was caught."
 
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