On Thursday, April 24, a Nebraska teenager pleaded no guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her child in 2023 and was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in jail.
Chloe Coplen-Anderson, 18, appeared in Sheridan County District Court on Thursday, and Judge Travis O’Gorman imposed the punishment.
According to an arrest document, Chloe Coplen-Anderson hid her pregnancy and sliced the throat of her newborn baby shortly after giving birth in her bedroom.
An officer from the Gordon Police Department responded at Coplen-Anderson’s residence on November 6, 2023, after getting a report of a teenage girl giving birth to a baby boy who was not breathing, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the officer came to discover Coplen-Anderson’s father, who stated that the child was stillborn and that it was too late to save the baby.
Coplen-Anderson’s mother, on the other hand, immediately blamed her daughter for the baby’s death. At the time, the mother was crying. According to the affidavit, she told officers that her daughter had “hurt him” and that there were “marks” where the infant had been stabbed.
Both parents informed investigators that they had observed their daughter remove a knife from the kitchen earlier that day. According to the affidavit, the knife was still missing from the drawer when investigators arrived at the home.
According to the complaint, cops were summoned back to the house after Coplen-Anderson’s father discovered the knife stashed in his daughter’s closet and covered in blood.
Coplen-Anderson suffers from several mental health disorders as a result of the trauma, according to the defense’s two witnesses.
Lancaster further stated that Coplen-Anderson was 15 when she fell pregnant with the child, and the baby’s father was 19. In Nebraska, sex between a 19-year-old and a 15-year-old or younger is considered sexual assault.
Lancaster also claimed in court that no adults stepped in to assist his client or stage an intervention.
Coplen-Anderson agreed to plead no guilty to second-degree murder in August 2024 in exchange for the initial accusation of first-degree murder being reduced by prosecutors.
Coplen-Anderson was also cleared of allegations of child abuse that resulted in death and the use of a deadly weapon.
In Nebraska, second-degree murder carries a sentence ranging from 20 years to life.
Coplen-Anderson will be at least 51 when she is released from jail, as the judge agreed to credit her for the more than 500 days she has already served.