Jane Doe, newborn

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Jane Doe, a newborn Latina infant -- known to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office as Jane Doe #14 -- was found dead on March 13 in an apartment in the Wilshire Center neighborhood just west of Vermont Avenue. The infant was discovered in the bathroom of the apartment where the child’s mother and family lived in the 3000 block of 8th Street. Paramedics determined the newborn was non-responsive and she was declared at the scene. Less than a day old, the baby girl’s death was the result of probable asphyxiation after birth, according to coroner’s spokesman Capt. Ed Winter.

Winter said the child’s mother, Virginia Leal, 25, denied the baby was hers. Los Angeles police Det. Supervisor Monica Quijano said investigators determined the child was Leal’s but declined to say how. Police arrested Leal on suspicion of murder the same day the baby was discovered. Prosecutors have charged Leal with murder and abuse likely to cause death to a child. She has pleaded not guilty.--Jack Leonard/LAT