Melissa Mitin appeared in Judge Jamo's Lansing courtroom on Friday, February 5, 2016, for a motion hearing.
The 26-year-old Okemos woman is accused in the death of her newborn daughter in 2013, and the disappearance and suspected death of a baby boy in late 2014. She became pregnant with the second child while out on bail after being charged with the death of her baby daughter.
Authorities believe she left her second newborn in a gas station dumpster, according to court documents.
The motion hearing was held to introduce new facts into evidence. During the hearing, Mitin's defense attorney Frank Reynolds asked for Child Protective Services records to review.
The judge granted the defense's request, saying that CPS records are confidential, but are necessary to the defense, and subject to the rules of discovery.
The prosecution has requested child abuse charges of to be added to the first-degree murder charge Mitin already faces in the 2013 death of her daughter.
Mitin's defense countered , saying the prosecution is trying to inflate the charges of open murder and child abuse.
Judge Jamo said the murder charge is based on a child abuse argument; relating to Mitin putting her newborn daughter in a waste basket in 2013. He said he will review the motion to add child abuse to the charges.
The prosecution then introduced a motion to add new information to the case. They laid out a timeline saying that Mitin concealed her pregnancy, and made no attempt to prepare for a child.
The prosecution stated Mitin lied about being raped, and concealed a relationship with her baby's father. They said she made online searches about pregnancy in the months before she gave birth. According to their timeline, Mitin conceived a second child in April of 2014, and doctors told her she was pregnant at an appointment in December of 2014. Doctors said that Mitin declined prenatal treatment, refused to look at the child on an ultrasound, and did not tell her family about the pregnancy.
The prosecution said Mitin knew that she was pregnant, lied about it, and never intended to keep her child. They said the deaths of both of her children were deliberate.
The prosecutor says Mitin told a fellow inmate that she put the second baby in a dumpster shortly after his birth.
