Washington woman convicted of murdering newborn will get hearing
A Washington woman serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of her newborn daughter will have yet another day in court.
Superior Court vacated an earlier ruling under the Post-Conviction Relief Act for Jessica Chappel Rizor, 40, of Washington, who is serving a life sentence in the State Correctional Institution at Muncy, Lycoming County.
Rizor, who claims she did not know she was pregnant, delivered a baby girl during the early-morning hours of Nov. 26, 2004, just after Thanksgiving Day.
She thought the infant was stillborn so she placed her in a plastic bag in the trash. Her then-husband found the lifeless body and an autopsy later determined the baby had been born alive, but with alcohol in her system that had absorbed from the mother’s bloodstream. The cause of death was ruled asphyxiation.
Rizor rejected a guilty-but-mentally-ill plea to third-degree murder and a sentence of five to 30 years in prison. She instead stood trial in 2008, when her attorney, Robert Brady, advocated a “diminished mental capacity” defense that Judge John DiSalle ultimately ruled could not be admitted during testimony.
A jury instead convicted her of premeditated murder, concealing the death of a child and abuse of a corpse.
Rizor has since pursued appeals, and in June, state Superior Court ruled that Rizor should have received a post-conviction evidentiary hearing.
The hearing was to take place Monday in Washington County Court, but DiSalle instead heard arguments from Rizor’s latest attorney, Joshua Camson, and Deputy District Attorney Jerome Moschetta.
Attorney David DiCarlo also represented Rizor during part of her appeals, and he apparently discussed the case with Brady, who now lives in Thailand, according to information posted on his Facebook account.
Camson “wants to call Mr. DiCarlo to talk about his conversations with Mr. Brady,” Moschetta said Monday at the courthouse.
On the chance Brady may return to the area during the upcoming holidays, DiSalle hopes to set another date for an evidentiary hearing for Rizor as directed by Superior Court.