Jennifer Berry, 33, tossed her newborn baby out the window of her seventh-floor apartment window after delivering it in the shower, on Monday, September 28, police and prosecutors said. The former child welfare worker has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter after an autopsy determined the death was a homicide caused by multiple blunt-force trauma.
The baby’s father was in the apartment when the killing occurred, but police sources said Giovanni Johnson, 28, knew nothing about Berry’s bizarre behavior.
"I didn’t know about the pregnancy," a rattled Johnson told The News by phone Tuesday, his voice cracking. "I didn’t know any of this. I’ve been cleared of all charges."
Johnson told police Berry had been pregnant months ago, but she told him she had had an abortion, according to sources.
Neighbors rallied behind Johnson, who grew up on W. 183rd St. and has a 3-year-old boy with another woman. Berry, who lives in Yonkers, started showing up at the apartment about a year ago, they said.
"I don’t think he knew," 27-year-old Tiffany Martinez said of Johnson. "He looked as surprised as anybody else. He looked shocked."
When cops showed up at the building, Johnson was outside talking to Martinez and didn’t have an inkling about what happened, she said.
Horrified neighbors found the newborn’s remains in the building courtyard around 2:30 p.m. and called police.
"I saw the blood ... when you went up the stairs you could see everything," said Bolton’s wife, Janiqua Torres, 33.
"When I heard the police say ‘baby,’ that’s what crushed me. It was that serious, it crushed me," Torres added.
Bolton said Berry refused to go with police until cops kicked the door in. The mother initially denied she was pregnant before confessing that she gave birth in the shower of her apartment Monday afternoon, according to police sources.
She claimed the newborn wasn’t breathing and she threw the baby, as well as the placenta, out the window, the sources said.
But at Berry’s arraignment Tuesday night in Bronx criminal court, Assistant District Attorney Georgia Barker flatly denied it.
"She gave birth to an 8-pound girl and dropped the newborn seven stories to the pavement. The medical examiner has determined that the baby was alive," Barker told the judge as an impassive Berry stood by in grimy gray sweatpants and a darker gray hoodie.
"There was air in the lungs, this was a healthy baby girl," Barker said.
Berry was remanded without bail. She next appears in court Oct. 5.
Source: Daily News
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