A woman has been jailed for seven and a half years after throwing her newborn daughter out of a window because she was “worried a baby would ruin her career”.
Katarina Jovanovic, 28, from Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, was found guilty of manslaughter at the Heilbronn District Court on Wednesday, July 3.
Judges heard how she had secretly given birth at home 10 months ago on September 12, then dropped her baby daughter from her apartment window nearly 12 feet onto the runway.
Horrified passers-by found the body of the minutes-old baby with its skull smashed beneath Jovanovic’s balcony and called police.
Katarina Jovanovic, 28, from Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Wuerttemberg, pictured in court
Prosecutors told the court that Jovanovic (pictured) thought becoming a mother would ruin her career as an executive in Porsche’s legal department.
Jovanovic admitted the crime at the start of the trial in April but was unable to explain the timing in court, ASB Zeitung reported.
She also claimed she had not realised she was pregnant, but prosecutors charged her with murder and deliberately concealing her pregnancy from her colleagues and neighbours.
Prosecutors told the court that Jovanovic thought becoming a mother would ruin her career as an executive in Porsche’s legal department.
Prosecutor Mareike Hafendoerfer explained: ‘The accused was not prepared to postpone her life plans, and in particular her professional development, for the sake of a child.
“That was his decision when the baby was born and as a result, the criteria for a murder conviction are met.”
Jovanovic’s lawyers argued that at most it was manslaughter, as she had accidentally dropped the baby from her hands after giving birth alone at home without realising she was pregnant.
The newborn fell from a 12-foot-high apartment window onto the runway (pictured is a general view of the apartment building)
Defence lawyer Malte Hoech, 53, said: “It is a drama that affects me personally. My client did not even know she was pregnant.
‘When she suddenly held the bloody baby in her hands, she was in an exceptional psychological state.
“It was an accident, the baby fell. It remains to be seen how the child ended up on the windowsill.”
In the end, the court accepted the lesser charge of homicide, but sentenced her to seven and a half years in prison, more than the three years requested by the defense.
His legal team said they plan to appeal the verdict.
Neighbours told local media they had no idea Jovanovic was expecting a baby.
One of them said: “Nobody noticed that the woman was pregnant. She had recently changed and was no longer talking to us.”
We thought she was stressed at work.