Shelby Taylor of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was found guilty of the attempted murder of her newborn baby on Thursday.
The mother of two, who was 23 years old at the time, admitted to secretly giving birth in her home in 2015, placing her daughter into a trash bag, and then tossing her into a dumpster, to be left for dead.
All of this occurred while her husband, Patrick Taylor, and then-15-month-old daughter, slept in the same household during the early morning hours of April 9, three years ago, Myrtle Beach Online reported.
The child survived and is currently in the care of her biological grandparents, who said the mother of the newborn denied her pregnancy the entire time leading up to her attempted murder of the child.
Shelby Taylor of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was found guilty on Thursday of the attempted murder of her newborn baby, for placing her in a dumpster and leaving her for dead in 2015
The woman cried from the stand as she testified on Tuesday, calling her husband abusing and controlling, and saying the two of them were not financially secure enough to have a second child and she did not want him to leave her.
This was a change to the story she gave in April 2015, just 12 hours after she gave birth, when she said she had a ‘good husband.’
Taylor updated her remarks during her testimony on Tuesday, saying she was protecting her husband at the time.
The woman turned herself in to authorities on the same evening that she dumped her baby in a garbage bin, after she saw a surveillance photo of herself on TV, according to WWLP-22 News.
Officials reportedly found a receipt in the trash bag that they found the newborn in, and when they checked the surveillance tape of the store where the receipt was from, they found the footage of Taylor, which she then saw.
Trinity Grace (seen here at age 1) survived, is currently in the care of her grandparents
The woman turned herself in to authorities on the same evening that she dumped her baby in a garbage bin, after she saw this surveillance photo of herself on TV
The surviving little girl has been nicknamed ‘Baby Hope’ by her family
Shelby Taylor (right) is seen here with the father of Trinity Grace, Patrick Taylor (left); This photo was taken in 2013 and shows Shelby pregnant with a previous child
The baby girl was found by two teenage boys, who thought they heard a kitten crying while taking out the trash, but found the child, instead.
Raymond Price, who was 13 years old at the time of the incident, testified that he ‘found the bag with the baby’s face pressed up against the bag.’
The newborn’s umbilical chord was wrapped around her neck, ABC News 15 reported.
Price and his brother ripped open the bag, and freed the child, now named Trinity Grace, according to ABC.
‘Baby Hope’ is seen here at age 1 with her grandmother, Cheri Taylor
Cheri and Peter Taylor have custody of Trinity Grace
Trinity Grace is seen here in a photo shared to social media
Horry County Fire Rescue paramedic Captain Keith Drabick described the scene when he arrived. after the teens pulled the child from the dumpster.
Drabick said that when they found the little girl, she had food and other debris around her face.
‘I got into the back of the ambulance, still maintaining care of the child,’ he said.
‘[I] sat on the stretcher, and they strapped me in as I held the baby, and we transferred the baby to Waccamaw Hospital caring for it.’
Trinity, whose nickname is Baby Hope, is now in the custody of her grandparents, according to WDPE.
‘We just thank God for the boys that found her,’ said grandmother Cheri Taylor.
‘Without them, we never would have known about her. We didn’t know her mother was pregnant. She denied it the whole time.’
Trinity Grace is seen here with her father, Patrick Taylor, who was married to Shelby in 2015
Trinity Grace will turn 3 on April 9; She lives with her biological grandparents
The mother’s defense attorney tried to argue on Thursday morning that she did what she did due to a rare psychological condition called ‘transient perinatal psychosis,’ which is a severe form of postpartum depression.
Experty Psychologist Robert McCarthy testified for the defense that there are about 100 diagnosed cases of the condition, each year.
McCarthy said that transient perinatal psychosis is commonly associated with what he called ‘baby dumping.’
But Prosecutor Scott Hixson’s closing argument won out, as he told the jury that Taylor not only intended to kill her baby, but had to intentionally deceive everyone in her life to do it.
‘That’s not a mental disease or defect, that’s infanticide,’ Hixson said.
Taylor has not yet been sentenced for her crime.
Patrick Taylor (left) is seen here with Cheri Taylor in a photo from 2010