Liberty Street resident accused of murdering infant
A 28-year-old Batavia resident has been arrested and charged with murder in the 2nd degree in the death of her newborn infant.
The female infant had apparently been dead for three months when police responded to a call at 11:20 p.m. of a suspicious condition at 208 Liberty St.
A third party reportedly discovered the dead infant's body and called police, and when police arrived they confirmed the discovery of the body.
Being held in jail without bail is Christina M. Colantonio. She is scheduled to appear in court again at 1:30 p.m., Monday.
Police are not releasing the cause of death because of the ongoing nature the investigation. Investigators believe the infant was killed a short time after birth, which police believe took place at Colantonio's residence, but are not saying if death was immediate, within hours or days.
District Attorney Lawrence Friedman said murder in the second degree means the accused is suspected of intentionally causing the death of another person, but he would not disclose what evidence exists to convince his office that Colantonio should be prosecuted on a murder 2nd charge.
"We have enough to come to the conclusion that the death was intentionally caused, but because of the fact that we do not have a final autopsy report and because the investigation is ongoing, we won't be indicating anything further at this time," Friedman said.
After the press conference, we spoke with a neighbor, who didn't want to disclose his name, and he said he was outside two nights ago when police and the coroner were at Colantonio's residence. He saw authorities bring a 48-quart ice chest out to the street, remove a small body and place it in a body bag.
Authorities have not disclosed where the infant's body's was in the house at the time of its discovery.
Another neighbor, David Zanghi, said Contantonio worked at Sport of Kings restaurant and described her as a quiet woman who kept to herself and never was involved in any kind of disturbance.
"She seemed like a pretty nice girl," he said.
Contontonio lived in the apartment by herself, police said. She has two other children.
Authorities are not disclosing anything about the father of the baby.
Det. Todd Crosett and District Attorney Lawrence Friedman.