PORT ANGELES — The murder trial of 16-year-old Lauryn Last, originally scheduled for Monday, has been postponed until April 20.
Last will be tried as an adult in Clallam County Superior Court on the charge of first-degree murder, with a second-degree murder option, in the Dec. 30 death of her infant son.
The maximum punishment for first-degree murder is life in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Prosecuting attorney William Payne on Friday asked Superior Court Judge Ken Williams to postpone the trial because the state is still waiting for reports.
Defense attorney John Hayden did not object.
Williams granted the continuance and reset the trial. A status hearing was set for March 13.
Last is accused of downing her newborn son in a toilet bowl. Defense attorneys have argued that Last didn’t know she was in labor, and that she went into shock after giving birth on a toilet.
She was arrested at her father’s Port Angeles home on Jan. 2.
The body of infant, named Thomas Loy Last by the teen’s mother — who lives in Colorado — was found in a 30-ton trash container near Tacoma Jan. 5. The trash had been taken there from Port Angeles.
Last is being held in the Clallam County Juvenile Services Detention Facility on $500,000 bail.
Defense attorney Suzan Hayden has called the infant’s death a horrible tragedy, and said that charging the girl with first-degree murder as an adult is inappropriate.
The teen’s father, Ronald Last, was charged with felony possession of a firearm and possession of methamphetamine, as well as the gross misdemeanor of concealing birth. He posted $10,000 bail on Jan. 7.
Police have said that the girl was impregnated by a man in his 30s in Colorado.
