Burlco mom pleads guilty to setting newborn afire
The Pemberton Township woman who set her newborn daughter on fire hours after giving birth pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated manslaughter.
The Pemberton Township woman who set her newborn daughter on fire hours after giving birth pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated manslaughter.
Prosecutors will recommend that Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, 23, face 30 years in prison for the crime. Her original charge of murder was amended to aggravated manslaughter as part of a plea deal offered by prosecutors.
Dorvilier's mother, Juana Sully, looked down and wiped away tears as Judge Terrence Cook read the terms of the deal in Superior Court in Burlington County. Dorvilier answered basic questions from Cook with "Yes, your honor" or "No, your honor."
When public defender Karen Thek asked Dorvilier whether she set the fire and realized "there was a probability that death would result from those actions," Dorvilier replied, "Yes."
Dorvilier embraced Thek at the end of the hearing before being led away in an orange jail jumpsuit and shackles. Sully declined to speak afterward.
Dorvilier's sentencing is scheduled for April 22.
The guilty plea came nearly two weeks after Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor James Ronca received a psychological report on Dorvilier. It was done by a private psychologist at the defense's request. Ronca and Thek have not disclosed the contents of the report.
Authorities said Dorvilier took a can of WD-40 lubricating spray and a lighter, and set her newborn daughter ablaze on Simontown Road in Pemberton Township on the evening of Jan. 16, 2015.
Dorvilier drove there several hours after giving birth alone in the bathroom of her home a mile and a half away, authorities said.
The baby, whom family members later named Angelica, still had her umbilical cord attached at the time of the fire, prosecutors said. Neighbors said they heard the infant crying, and tackled Dorvilier as she tried to run to her car.
Officers found the baby wrapped in a smoldering towel and papers, with third-degree burns on two-thirds of her body, authorities said.
Angelica was flown to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, but died less than two hours later.
Authorities have not said who the child's father was. They said Dorvilier, 22 at the time, hid her pregnancy from her mother and younger sister, with whom she lived.
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