(GoRealNewsNow.com) – Celeste Burgess, a 19-year-old Nebraska resident, has been sentenced to a jail term for having an illegal abortion late in her pregnancy and disposing of the killed unborn infant.
The Madison County District Court sentenced Burgess to 90 days in jail and two years probation, reports News Channel Nebraska Central, as cited by The New York Post.
“Due to the possibility of good time,” her sentence might be reduced to as low as 50 days, according to Andrew Nelson of Courthouse News.
In May, Burgess, of Norfolk, Nebraska, pleaded guilty to “removing, concealing, or abandoning a dead body.”
Under the plea deal, the prosecution dropped two misdemeanor charges against the teen, who faced up to years in prison.
Last August, Celeste and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, faced multiple felony charges for perpetrating an “illegal late-term” abortion at home and then burning and burying the fetus.
Court documents said the Norfolk police received a tip in April 2022 that then-17-year-old Celeste Burgess gave birth to a stillborn child in a bathtub.
The teen told the detectives she had had a miscarriage, and her mother had helped her get rid of the fetus.
In a makeshift grave in a field, the police dug up the dead infant’s remains, which had traces of “thermal injuries.”
The investigators checked the two women’s Facebook messages, finding the two had conspired to perform the illegal home abortion and then destroy the evidence.
Original court documents quoted Burgess telling her mother “how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body.”
At the same time, Jessica was quoted as telling her daughter that she had procured the abortion pills and instructing her how to terminate the 29-week pregnancy.
Earlier this month, the teenager’s mother pleaded guilty to “providing an abortion after 20 weeks, false reporting, and tampering with human skeletal remains.” She is scheduled to be sentenced on September 22.
Besides the Burgesses, 22-year-old Tanner Barnhill was also charged in the case. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for helping them bury the dead infant on his parents’ property.
Since May 2023, abortions in Nebraska have been illegal past the 12th week of pregnancy.
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