PORT ANGELES — Lauryn L. Last, a Port Angeles teen who has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder for allegedly drowning her infant son in December 2008, has been released from the Clallam County Juvenile Services Detention Facility to live with relatives.
Last, 17, pled not guilty to first-degree murder in January 2009 after authorities found her newborn son in a 30-ton trash container near Tacoma six days after his death.
Her trial, which had been scheduled to begin on Monday, was postponed earlier this month because attorneys were sifting through piles of evidence and paperwork.
Instead, a new trial date will be set on Monday in a pretrial hearing at 9 a.m.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams on Friday released Last from the juvenile center with standard conditions of release and a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
Last will be living with her uncle, Lewis Harris of Port Angeles, and grandmother, Ella Harris of Port Angeles. The only exception to the curfew is for Last to attend self-help meetings.
Williams said the teen is not a flight risk and does not pose a danger to the community.
Defense attorney John Hayden filed a motion for a bill of particulars on Jan. 15.
The motion asks the state to disclose its theory of the case, evidence that the infant was born alive, expert opinion on how the infant died and what evidence the state intends to use to prove premeditation on the part of Last.
“I’m still at a loss to understand the state’s theory on the cause of death,” Hayden said in Friday’s hearing.
Judge Williams will rule on the motion for discovery in Monday’s hearing.
Prosecutors allege that Last drowned the infant, Thomas Last, in a toilet and placed the body in a trash container outside her father’s Port Angeles residence.
Defense attorneys say that Lauryn Last didn’t know she was in labor and that she went into shock after giving birth.
The trash was taken to the Port Angeles waste transfer station, then to another transfer station near Tacoma.
Lauryn Last was arrested at her father’s Port Angeles home on Jan. 2, 2009. The original bail was set at $500,000.
After spending eight months in custody, Last was released from juvenile center in September to live with another uncle and to attend school.
She was placed on an electronic home monitoring system.
After a fallout with her uncle, a warrant was issued, and Last returned to custody on Nov. 3.
Defense attorney Suzanne Hayden argued successfully on Friday that Last shouldn’t be placed on electronic home monitoring this time.
The baby’s father, Gregory Greenway, 37, of Pueblo, Colo., is serving four years in a Colorado prison for criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a child for assaulting Last, then age 15, in 2008.
Greenway faced a potential life sentence on an original charge of criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a child.
He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge as part of a plea agreement in Pueblo District Court.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
