FRESNO, CA (KMJ) — A California judge has dismissed a murder case against a woman who delivered a stillbirth after consuming meth while pregnant.
Chelsea Becker delivered a stillborn son at Adventist Health Hospital in Hanford back in Sept. of 2019.
Hospital staff suspected she may have used drugs while pregnant and called the Kings County Coroner’s Office.
Becker spent more than a year in jail following her arrest in November of 2019.
Thursday, in Kings County Superior Court, the charge was dismissed after a court ruled the prosecution failed to present adequate evidence to prove she acted with malice.
Kings County Superior Court Judge Robert Shane Burns said prosecutors failed to provide evidence that Chelsea Becker consumed drugs knowing it could kill her child.
Becker’s attorneys have argued that California’s homicide law does not apply to pregnant women.
Prosecutors have said the case is not about reproductive rights but about stopping a woman who repeatedly abused narcotics while pregnant.
The prosecution can appeal the ruling.
Click to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
