PORT ANGELES — Witness testimony concluded Tuesday in a long-continued hearing over the admissibility of Lauryn L. Last’s statements to police about the December 2008 death of her newborn boy.
Last, now 18, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of the infant, and her statements to Port Angeles police are key to the prosecution’s case, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg has said.
Last allegedly incriminated herself after she waived her right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, giving statements to police immediately before being arrested Jan. 2, 2009, in connection with the infant’s death.
Last, who was 16 when the infant died, has pleaded not guilty. Police said the newborn drowned in a toilet.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams on Tuesday set deadlines of July 15 for Troberg to file his legal brief to Williams on the question of admissibility and July 22 for Port Angeles defense attorney John Hayden to file his brief.
Williams will hear the lawyers’ oral arguments at 9 a.m. July 28 and will issue a ruling “hopefully, a week or two” after that, Williams said Tuesday.
Last’s trial, which had been set for June 7, was postponed pending Williams’ ruling.
The hearing that continued Tuesday began in November 2010 and included testimony from psychological experts and police officers on the degree to which Last knew what she was doing when she waived her rights.
Earlier Tuesday, county Juvenile Corrections Officer Mike McBride and Last’s father, Ron Last of Port Angeles, testified in the 45-minute hearing.
McBride said he and three or four other staff members at the county juvenile detention facility saw Last “talking and rambling to herself” on more than one occasion while in her segregation cell after her arrest.
“It was cause for me at least to want to have someone come in and talk to her and see if she was OK,” McBride said, adding that in one instance, “she appeared to be talking at length nonstop.”
Last was integrated into the general detention-center population Jan. 12 after her behavior improved, McBride said.
In 20 minutes of testimony Tuesday, Ron Last, 44, said the emotional and verbal abuse his daughter’s mother and grandmother heaped on her was “just relentless.”
In connection with the infant’s death, Ron Last was charged with concealing the birth of dead child, a misdemeanor. The charge was later dismissed.
Last’s child was fathered by a 37-year-old man who is now serving time in Colorado for sexual assault of a child, Last, when she was 15.
Police have said they believe the baby Last gave birth to in the bathroom of her father’s Port Angeles house was full term.
“That opinion is based on statements to police from witnesses who observed the baby and said, ‘it looked to me like it was full term,’” Detective Jason Viada said in an interview.
Based on her interviews with police, Port Angeles Detective Jesse Winfield made the following statement to show the charge was “well-founded,” according to court records:
“Lauryn Last put her baby face-down into a toilet and allowed it to drown for several minutes until it died.
“She then threw her son into the trash can outside in a plastic garbage bag.”
Last is now living with a relative on her own recognizance.
If found guilty, her maximum sentence would be 18 years and four months.
When arrested, Last was charged with first-degree murder as an adult, a charge later reduced.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladaily news.com.
