Probation for ex-student in baby’s death

A former USC architecture student who placed the body of her newborn son in a trash bin was sentenced Friday to five years of probation and ordered to receive monthly pregnancy tests during that period.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy also sentenced Holly Ashcraft to 30 days in jail, which she has already served. If Ashcraft is found to be pregnant in the monthly tests, she will be ordered to undergo prenatal care, Ashcraft’s attorney, Mark Geragos, said.

Prosecutors tried twice to charge Ashcraft with murder, alleging that the 23-year-old dumped the newborn while he was still alive. Ashcraft told police that the baby was stillborn. Authorities suspect that Ashcraft abandoned another baby in April 2004, when she arrived at a Los Angeles hospital after having just given birth.

After judges dismissed both murder charges, the district attorney’s office struck a deal last month, with Ashcraft admitting to the lesser charge of child endangerment resulting in death.

-- Victoria Kim