Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Judge Robert D. Krause Wednesday dismissed the first-degree murder charge against Julie Robat, the North Providence woman accused of suffocating her newborn.

Defense lawyer Paul DiMaio said he intended to seek a dismissal of the first-degree murder charge. The judge agreed. The jury will now consider whether Robat is guilty or innocent of either second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Earlier Wednesday, State prosecutor J. Patrick Youngs told Krause that he would object to the dismissal motion if DiMaio filed it.

Wednesday morning, jurors heart testimony from Dr. Dave E. David, a well-known obstetrician seen on CNN and in various television infomercials. David, testifying for the defense, said he believes Robat's baby died from a medical complication involving the placenta, which supplies blood and oxygen to a baby in the womb.

He cited blood clots on the placenta and Robat's bleeding in the months before she gave birth. He said it's common for women to confuse bleeding associated with a separating placenta with menstruation.

He also said that women sometimes fail to realize that they are pregnant "as unbelievable as it sounds.''

Robat is on trial in Providence Superior Court charged with murdering her baby.

On Tuesday she testified that she couldn't remember giving birth in late October 2006. The police found her baby girl in a garbage bag in the laundry room of her family's house at 6 Lori Drive in North Providence.

(An earlier version of this story was posted at 11:19 a.m. and updated at 1:04 p.m.)

 Tags  crime North Providence RI

Comments

fkldsj said:

I think it's important to keep in mind that these doctors for the defense are making several thousand dollars a day for their testimony.

Link | April 15, 2009 4:50 PM
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