The Associated Press reported a jury in Tennessee found Lindsey Lowe, age 26, guilty of murdering her newborn twins in 2011.
The twins were discovered in a laundry basket in 2011. The woman, of Nashville, was convicted of felony and premeditated murder by seven male and five female jurors. She was also found guilty of aggravated child abuse. The judge sentenced her to life in prison.
Premeditated murder involves the defendant planning a killing. Usually, the defendant goes through some deliberation to reflect on the idea of killing after forming the intent to kill. The deliberation has to be long enough for the defendant to be fully conscious of the intent to kill, and to have considered the killing. Felony murder is murder during the perpetration of an inherently dangerous felony.
Lowe was emotional at trial, but did not break down or cry when she was immediately sentenced after the guilty verdict. She was taken into custody in March 2013.
Lowe carried a Bible throughout the seven-day trial. She pointed to the sky and stated to her family and friends: “I’m OK. I love you all. He’s with me,” reported the Associated Press.
At trial, the men and women on the jury saw a video of Lowe informing the police she gave birth by herself on September 12, 2011. In a video of the police interrogation, Lowe informed the police she “maybe” smothered the babies “to keep them quiet,” according to the Associated Press.
She had the twins in the bathroom of her parents’ home. Her family lived in a suburban neighborhood, 20 miles of Nashville. The home was located in Hendersonville, an upper-middle-class area.
The bodies of the twins were not discovered until two days after she gave birth. A family member found one baby dead in a laundry basket. When officers went to the house to investigate, police discovered a second body under a sheet that had a lot of blood in the same basket.
Police officers testified against Lowe at trial. The officers who discovered the babies in the laundry basket were emotional when they recalled the events. One officer touched an infant with two fingers and discovered the baby was not breathing and cold.
At the time of the births, Lowe was engaged. The jurors were told, Lowe became pregnant during an affair with a man who was not the man she planned to marry. She kept the pregnancy a secret. She did not tell her friends and family she was pregnant.
Prosecutors introduced into evidence graphic autopsy pictures of the infants.