Young Mother Sentenced in Stabbing Death of Newborn Son

An Athens woman was sentenced to life in prison for killing her newborn baby boy in November 2012.

Cassandra Elyse Norwood, 23, was sentenced on Wednesday, May 28. She will be eligible for parole after 30 years, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

Police say Norwood, a Cedar Shoals High School graduate, kept her pregnancy a secret from her family, then stabbed him and slit his throat after the birth at the family's Waverly Woods home

She had hidden her pregnancy from her parents and allegedly hid the baby's body in a trash can after she killed him at the family's Waverly Woods home. She reportedly stabbed and slit the infant's throat.

She pleaded not guilty, telling authorities it was an accident when she was cutting the umbilical cord. Authorities said the baby had been wounded 19 times.

Prosecutors said the murder was pre-meditated.

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There was another case in Athens of a newborn being stabbed to death. In early January 1996, a custodian in UGA's Oglethorpe House found a newborn's body that had sustained more than 40 stab wounds before being dumped in a trash can. The mother was presumed to have been a UGA student who killed her child, but she was never identified and no one was ever charged in the incident. Dubbed Jonathan Foundling, the baby was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

In that case, UGA Police officials talked with experts and other law enforcement officials who had dealt with similar situations. They said that 80 percent of baby murders occur where the mother lives. In 70 percent of those cases, the mother kills the baby and in 95 percent, she acts alone.

Also read these Patch stories:

• Cassandra Norwood, Accused of Killing Her Own Infant, is Denied Bond in Athens, Ga.
• Cassandra Norwood Pleads Not Guilty in Stabbing Death of Newborn in Athens, Ga.
• Cassandra Norwood, 21, Accused of Murdering Her Own Newborn, Enters Jail