Student in Dorm Baby Death Wins Big in Court Bombshell

The crude text messages that could have been a key piece of evidence for the prosecution

in a case of a Florida college student accused of killing her newborn in a college bathroom

will not make it in front of the jury.

This is a major win for Brianna Moore as she faces aggravated manslaughter and child neglect

charges.

So we're going to dig into the judge's decision as well as other potentially damning evidence

that will be part of her upcoming trial, but we're also going to let you know what the

defense may be doing.

Welcome to Sidebar presented by Long Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber.

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Okay, before we even get into this significant legal development, how it happened, why it

happened, why the court decided this, I have to set the stage here, okay, 2024.

As Brianna Moore was wrapping up her freshman year at the University of Tampa, the then

19 year old's life changed forever.

She gave birth to a baby girl in the bathroom of her dorm suite, but she has long contended

that she didn't have any idea that she was pregnant.

Now, before you stop right here and say, how is that even possible?

There is science to this, okay, there is potentially a defense here, but not long after

being born, this baby, which more later named Amara, was dead.

How long the child lived, how she died, that is central to a criminal case that Hillsborough

County prosecutors brought against Moore.

Today, my office has charged Brianna Moore with aggravated manslaughter of a child after

authorities found her newborn baby girl in a trash can outside of her dorm at the University

of Tampa at the end of April of this year.

I've been a prosecutor for more than 20 years in my own hometown.

I've gone after murderers, I've prosecuted international drug traffickers.

The absolute worst of the worst, and this is a case that I struggled with.

This is a case that has kept me up at night.

It's both difficult and nuanced, and I did not take this decision lightly.

This case has kept me up so many nights remembering back to when I went out on the scene that

Sunday evening back in late April.

And I saw a bag sitting outside of a dumpster outside of a dorm that I knew contained the

remains of that newborn baby girl.

So this case rocked the Tampa area.

It made headlines around the country.

You have these horrific details that were revealed in police reports and other investigative

materials that are really kind of hard to grasp, but it is important from the legal context.

So let's go through it a little bit more.

So according to police on Saturday, April 27, 2024, Moore woke up alone in her dorm room

with stomach pains.

The roommate wasn't there, and she told the investigators she went to the bathroom and

was shocked to find that she was in labor.

Now Moore admitted to police and recorded interviews that she sat with the baby for a while

in that bathroom, eventually took a shower, fell asleep for around an hour, and she told

Tampa police that she believed that her baby had died not long after it was born.

She says she was shocked, that she was panicked, that she ended up putting the dead child in

a trash can.

She didn't go to the hospital, she didn't call 911, she didn't tell anybody.

Now here's the thing.

That bathroom was shared by two dorm rooms, and one of the girls who lived next door went

into the bathroom and reportedly saw blood everywhere.

And she told them that she wasn't pregnant, so police leave without discovering the baby.

Here's what happens.

The other roommates were all in this group chat together trying to figure out what was

going on with Moore, who they told police they weren't close with, and all three said

that they heard a baby cry early Saturday morning.

But I thought maybe they were dreaming or that it had come from a video.

Now police claimed that it wasn't until Sunday, so the next day that Moore's roommate realized

something was very wrong, according to charging documents, quote, witness one was with a friend

witness four inside the dorm room to gather some items for witness one.

Well inside the room, witness one and witness four saw a bloody towel inside the suspects

trash can.

Seeing the styrofoam container, witness four touched the towel and felt something firm

inside.

Believing this was possibly a baby, witness four picked up the trash bag from the can, walked

outside with witness one and alerted campus safety.

Witness one and witness four were joined by witness two before campus safety arrived.

Campus safety opened the towel in the presence of witness four and found a deceased infant.

And here's what the medical examiner revealed.

Seeing the autopsy, it was discovered that the infant had sustained multiple fractured ribs

along the spine in evidence of particular hemorrhaging in the lungs.

Dr. McCormick determined that the cause of death was asphyxia due to compression of the

torso with rib fractures and the manner of death as homicide.

Now again, before you think that's the end of the story, we've got to talk about what's

happening here.

We've got to talk about the defense and we've got to talk about this rolling.

So the district attorney filed four charges against Moore.

A child neglect with great bodily harm on lawful hold or storage of a human body in unapproved

conditions, failure to report death to medical examiner, a law enforcement intent to conceal

and aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Now Moore, who is originally from Mississippi, she was allowed to return home after police

had questioned her.

But then six months later, after this investigation, when the criminal charges were filed, she was

extradited from Mississippi back to Florida, okay, and now she's facing this.

So we're going to dig into what Moore had to say in two recorded interviews with police.

I think it's going to be important evidence for the prosecution, but also maybe for the

defense.

But I got to get into this new development, okay.

This crucial piece of potential evidence that the prosecution certainly had hoped to introduce

a trial.

And the ruling from the court is on whether or not the prosecution can present a crude

series of text messages between Moore and an apparent friend, who it's important to

note, is not the father of the child.

And this is where they seemingly appear to joke or make light about killing babies.

So I'm going to read you from the ruling.

Defendant is charged with interalia, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and child neglect

with great bodily harm for the death of her child on April 27, 2024.

The state seeks to admit into evidence the following set of text messages exchanged

between defendant and another individual labeled Cassem in her phone on September 13, 2023.

So this is months before the birth.

Cassem, plan A was condoms, plan B was the pill, plan C was to kill the kid, and the

defendant, Moore, seemingly writes back, plan C is my favorite.

So meaning killing the kid was your favorite plan.

You can see why that's not great for the defense.

You can see why the prosecution would want that into evidence, right?

Even if it was just a joke, the fact that Moore would later be accused of killing her

newborn, made these texts especially disturbing.

But here's a thing, and this is why it's important.

I've covered a number of these cases.

Newborn death cases like this are notoriously difficult to prosecute.

While there's a battle of medical experts, and of course witness testimony, including

from roommates, which may be different here, it can be very hard to convince a jury

that a baby wasn't a stillborn, or it can be very hard to convince a jury that a mother

deliberately killed her baby, that the baby didn't just die from the circumstances surrounding

being born in that environment, being born alone without medical professionals.

It can be very hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the mother killed the baby, particularly

if you're dealing with a younger defendant, a more vulnerable defendant.

Although the circumstances are different, I'll encourage everybody just to look at the

Brooke Skyler Richardson case.

We covered that one.

She was acquitted of murder, manslaughter, and connection with the death of her newborn

who she buried in the backyard.

So my point is, the reason I'm saying this, text messages, very similar to Google searches,

in any kind of case, they can help prove intent.

They can help prove state of mind.

They can help prove knowledge, okay?

So having those messages come in would have been key for the prosecution here.

You go to the judge's rule and quote, the state contends that the text messages are relevant

because they show that defendant had an intent or plan to kill a newborn child, which she

subsequently carried out.

Defendant responds that the messages are inadmissible character evidence and are not relevant

to show that defendant had an intent or plan to carry a pregnancy to term and then kill

her child after it was born.

So then the court references a Florida case from back in the 90s called Carter B. State.

So in Carter, the defendant was charged with loot and lascivious assault on a 13-year-old

girl.

Shortly before the incident, Carter and the victims aunt were discussing sex and young

girls, and he commented, if you're old enough to bleed, you're old enough to breed.

The state subsequently offered this statement at trial, arguing that the testimony was relevant

to show the appellant state of mind and to show that Carter was willing to commit this

kind of crime, and that's exactly what he did just a short time after he made the statement.

Carter argued that the statement was improper character evidence.

The trial court admitted the statement on appeal, the first district reversed, holding

that the statement was evidence presented by the prosecution of the defendant's bad

character to show that he acted in conformity with that bad character at a particular time

and was therefore inadmissible.

Okay, I need to give you a quick tutorial on that.

So under the law, evidence of a person's character or a trait of character is generally

not allowed in trial.

It's inadmissible to prove that someone acted in conformity with it on a particular

occasion.

What do I mean?

It makes sense, right?

If, oh, they did this or, oh, they're a bad person or, oh, they did this bad thing,

they must have committed this crime.

They must be guilty here, right?

Usually, you wouldn't be allowed to introduce that evidence.

It's not fair.

Now, there are exceptions, including under Florida law.

You can introduce this other stuff, similar fact evidence of other crimes, other wrongs,

other acts.

It can be admissible when it is relevant to proving a material fact that's an issue that

can be proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence

of mistake, absence of this being an accident, but it is generally inadmissible when the evidence

is really only being put forward to prove someone's bad character or propensity to do something.

So in that case, the Carter one, the statement had been allowed a trial, but then an appeals

court looked it and said that was wrong.

It was improper.

It shouldn't have been admitted.

What about a Morse case?

So we now go to the judge's decision.

It says, quote, even reading the text message exchange here in the light most favorable to

the state, the prosecution, it is improper character evidence and inadmissible in the

state's case in chief.

The statement expresses a belief of preference that defendants' favorite plan to address

a pregnancy is to kill the kid and is offered to show the defendant acted in conformance

with that stated belief.

By its own terms, it is not tethered in any way to a specific pregnancy.

It does not express a distinct plan or intent to take any specific action.

It does not even express that defendant would consider this course of action if she ever

became pregnant.

Its only relevant purpose is to show that the defendant is the sort of person who would

kill a newborn child.

Therefore, it is not admissible.

It's kind of like if a defendant were to say, oh, when I get so angry, I could kill someone

and then they're accused murdering someone, not sure that statement would have the appropriate

connective tissue or relevance to be admissible to that particular case.

Now there is an interesting footnote from the judge here which says, the state acknowledged

at the hearing that they did possess or intend to offer any direct evidence to show that

the defendant knew she was pregnant at the time of the statement.

The state instead argued that they could offer circumstantial evidence to show that the

defendant should have known she was pregnant at the time.

However, it appears that the time frame of conception was the week of August 15 to

the 22nd, 2023, which the state did not dispute.

At most then, the defendant would have been four weeks pregnant at the time she made

the statement and there is no evidence to show that at that point, she possessed actual

knowledge of her pregnancy, which by the way, wouldn't be surprising.

Sometimes people don't know they're pregnant at that time.

Quote the state attempts to distinguish Carter, that case I mentioned before, by arguing

that the reason for admission in this case is different.

To paraphrase the state's argument, the prosecution and Carter offered the statement to show

that Carter had the propensity to commit the crime at the first opportunity, i.e. that

it was offered for an improper character purpose, while in this case the statement is offered

to show defendant's intent or plan to commit infanticide, and then at the first opportunity

that she carried out that intent or plan.

But the statement cannot bear the weight the state gives it.

It does not express an intent to take an action or plan to take an action.

It expresses a belief or preference in general and is offered to show the defendant acted

in conformance with that belief seven months later.

That is exactly what Carter and section 90.404 Florida statutes for bids.

That section is the one that I was reading to you before or referencing before.

So the judge rule that the jury will not see that text exchange.

However, however, the jury could potentially see it if a witness opens the door.

Meaning there's a witness that takes the stand and then they can be questioned or potentially

cross-examined about it.

Quote.

Quote leaves open the possibility that defendant could open the door to such evidence during

her case in chief.

So meaning if the defense decides to do something, it could be free reign.

Should the state seek to question any defense witness about these text messages or offer

them into evidence in the rebuttal case, the state must seek permission from the court

prior to doing so and outside the presence of the jury.

Both parties will be given the opportunity to raise any appropriate arguments or objections

at that time.

It is possible that there is a chance these text messages could be heard by the jury,

but as of right now, they're not going to be.

And that's a blow to the prosecution.

Now let me just talk about this real quick.

So Morse trial has been delayed several times.

The court docket doesn't show a new trial date has been set.

There's an article in the Tampa Bay Times that says the lawyers told the judge that they

need more time to speak to experts and parse through the evidence and according to the

docket, they're due back in court in May for a status review.

Now that makes sense.

Okay, that makes sense.

Since this case could very well be now a battle of experts, a battle of forensic experts

that may dispute the cause of the injuries, right?

So is it harm inflicted by the mother on this baby or were the injuries sustained by the

baby from the actual childbirth, right?

You have a mother giving birth on her own.

Is that how the ribs were fractured?

That I think is going to be a matter of dispute amongst experts.

People talking experts, you might have mental health professionals talking about what more

new or should have known.

What did she perceive?

Trauma.

How is it someone could not have known they were pregnant, right?

Well, this is a thing called a cryptic pregnancy.

You enter kind of a disassociative state.

So this is a case where the defense would argue that there were mistakes by more that were

driven by psychological stress.

That the death was merely an accident and not the result of neglect or willful or deliberate

harm.

You're already seeing this in some of the pre-trial filings and arguments.

The defense wants to assert these kinds of witnesses and experts in testimony.

And it brings us to another question.

So what evidence can the prosecution use in their case against more?

Well, there is one critical piece of evidence that I want to talk about.

And that is Moore's own apparent statements to police after the baby's body was found.

Her interviews.

Her interviews with law enforcement and they were audio recorded.

Can you tell me about the baby?

The baby?

Listen.

You're very smart.

I know this.

You're a mild person, okay?

So you know all that.

And you know about DNA.

You know all those things, okay?

We have a very young baby right now, right outside your womb.

You had quite a deal.

He sounds like yesterday morning in the bathroom for a few hours, okay?

Listen, we're not judging at all on this, okay?

People can get in over their heads sometimes.

They're not sure what to do, okay?

But let's just be honest, okay?

Basically, first of all, I did not even know that I was pregnant.

And then I just woke up not feeling good yesterday morning.

So I went to the bathroom, I was peeping, whatever.

And then, yeah.

But after a few seconds, it was dead.

How long did the baby cry for us and all the roommates and sweet mates all heard the

baby cry?

How long?

Maybe like five seconds maybe.

Five seconds of crying.

Something around that ish.

Okay, did you take the baby back to bed for you for a short time period?

I was in the bathroom.

I just stayed in the bathroom.

You just stayed in the bathroom.

So more seemingly admitted to the detectives that she hadn't had her period in around a year,

but says, you know, she attributed that to the fact that she had stopped using a birth

control patch.

So you went to the bathroom and obviously had a baby.

Did you deliver the placenta as well?

Yes.

Okay, you're sure about that.

I'm pretty sure.

Pretty sure.

Something else after the baby came out and something pretty good amount or something.

Yeah.

Okay, it's just, it's important for your health on that.

Yeah, okay.

Okay, I'm worried about you a little bit, okay?

So you had the baby and the baby cried for how long do you think?

Just a few seconds.

Not long at all.

Not long at all.

So the baby cried for a short time period and you sure it wasn't anything.

Now here's the thing.

The medical examiner is going to be able to tell a lot of things.

You're honestly right now is very, very important, okay?

Okay.

So that's okay.

I sat in the shower.

I didn't really like washing anything, but I just sat in the shower.

Shower on or off?

On.

Okay.

And then, I think I got out and I sat there for a little bit, sat there for a little

bit, tried to wipe up some blood and then, yeah, just kind of sat there, just, yeah.

What after you sat there, what did you do then?

Well, it wasn't moving so I felt for a heartbeat and I didn't feel one.

Where did you feel?

Like right here.

Okay.

I'm the child.

Yeah.

And then, um, I wasn't moving and I got scared and, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

What did you do after that?

Um, I was out to fly out, towel on the floor in my room and I went to sleep because

I was tired and I thought, well, obviously, I took a nap and then when I got up, I just

completely did not know what to do.

Now, more later, did a second interview, a few days later with detectives in a squad car

where she was red or Miranda rights and agreed to speak with the officers.

Do you know who the father, have you done any calculations of when you think you would

have been pregnant?

Do you?

I've done some light ones.

Yes.

I think it would have been, I'm not an expert, okay.

When I Google, I find 280 days.

Do you know when that would be?

That would have been in July.

July.

Yeah.

So 280 days ago today would have been July 24th at a couple days to it.

You're talking about possibly mid late July.

The baby was pretty much full term and honestly, and it wasn't a week early or 10 days early,

but full term, okay.

So it certainly wasn't a month or two early.

So it would have been, when did you get to Florida?

Uh, in August.

In August.

So it would have to be at home.

Does anybody have a good buy?

A good buy?

To give a boyfriend up there that you said goodbye to or anything before coming down here?

Um.

No.

I feel like, I'm trying to think I'm sorry, I feel like.

Is there any way I could look at my phone for this?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We'll give you a phone back, yeah.

But it would have been July.

How scared were you in the bathroom after you delivered?

I was terrified.

So I know you delivered the baby cried and then did you pretty much immediately grab up the baby

to make sure that roommates weren't hearing what was going on?

Because I know you were trying to be fairly private during all this.

Well, yeah, I held it after.

I mean, it laid there for a few seconds and then I held it.

And you held it?

I'm sorry, I've just been told not to answer any of these questions.

By who you dad?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

When we talked the other day, you described kind of holding the baby clutching it kind of

to your breast chest area and the baby's face was towards you.

But the baby's still trying to cry a little bit and you're just trying to keep things a little

on the quiet side.

I'm not sure.

You're just not sure.

I'm just, I'm sorry.

I'm just not sure.

I'm not sure.

I don't know that not sure is going to answer some of the questions that people are going to want answered.

Yeah.

You're 19, understand, you're terrified.

So you're in a bathroom, you birth the baby, baby cry.

How long do you think you held the baby there?

I'm not sure.

Is this just going to be asking me about like holding the baby like this interview?

No, we're going to go on other things as well.

But there's a question that needs to be answered.

Yeah.

It's a pretty important question.

Can you just give me some time to kind of go over it in my head and maybe answer this later?

You're grown.

You can do pretty much whatever you want, but I can tell you right now there are people that are waiting to find out

your truthfulness, your honesty in what you were thinking at that time.

Yeah.

Going away and then having time to what people hold you as concocting the story might not be the best idea.

I'd say, I mean, I really have no concept of time for like how long anything happened,

but I probably held it for I think about maybe like 10 minutes, maybe somewhere around there.

Okay.

And obviously at some point the baby wasn't moving anymore, correct?

And then that's when you laid the baby on the tile, correct?

Clean yourself up some, clean baby up some.

And you ended up taking a nap and then reassessing the baby and then determining no babies.

And probably we're in full panic mode as my guess point.

Yeah.

And you don't seem like a very like run around crazy panic person.

I'm guessing you internalize a lot of things and kind of think through them the best you can.

I mean, I mean, I guess yeah, I'm not a runner or running around panic kind of person.

I just kind of kind of have the science mind.

We try to figure out how to work the problem, so to say.

Honestly, a lot of things I do when I get panic.

I just kind of try and put it out of my mind or I overthink it way too much.

Okay.

Were you trying to silence the crime to roommates didn't hear it?

Because all three roommates or sweet mates heard a baby cry.

I just put it.

Didn't recognize it at the time because it didn't make sense to them.

You know what I mean?

But then of course I saw everything.

It started making sense to them on that.

I mean, I just kind of put its head like right here.

And it stopped.

Okay.

Okay, stop crying.

Okay.

It's pre-remarkable.

One of you self-delivered the two that you were able to self-deliver in that amount of time.

That's generally somebody who had several children.

Once I realized it was happening, I went to the bathroom and I was hurting so bad I couldn't move.

And literally once I got the courage to order an Uber call and ambulance it came.

It was tough.

It was common.

Yeah.

You were going to order an Uber call and ambulance.

Yeah.

You had your phone with you in the bathroom.

Yeah.

I literally had the app pulled up and then as I was typing it in, I was like, I can't.

I know.

Can I ask?

Because I know that the people were going to ask.

Okay.

So you were going to call, but then it came.

Obviously that's probably you can't dial the phone while it's happening.

Yeah.

After it comes out and after you've held or the baby or sent it down.

Why didn't you grab your phone and call then?

I mean, I don't, I think I was just scared at that point.

I don't know.

I was just panicking.

Okay.

I appreciate your honesty.

Obviously you've been very cooperative and you've been very helpful.

This is a very traumatic experience for you.

I don't think that you're a bad person.

I don't think that you've done anything crazy.

But at the end of the day, I want you to think truly down to, you know, your actions and everything

that happened.

And if you feel, you know, that there's something that we don't know or something that you haven't

been forthcoming about.

You know, I mean, it's imperative and it's very important that you tell us that.

This is going to be looked at by us.

A lot of people are going to look at this.

Data attorney's office is going to look at this.

I'm guessing you saw it was in the papers, correct?

It made the news.

The baby was found on campus.

Okay.

Now they don't have the whole story.

That's for sure.

What about my name?

Is that?

No, not right now.

It's not.

Now, at some point these things all become record.

Yeah.

Okay.

They do become record at some point.

But there's lots of people looking at this and trying to figure things out.

There's going to be a lot of people that are going to have a lot of sympathy for a 19-year-old

and a scary situation, okay?

But a lot of those people want very truthful answers of how things happen.

So again, this could be a key piece of evidence that will be battled both by the prosecution and the defense.

The lawyers are doing back in court in May to give the judge an update on where their preparation stands.

A lot on the line here, by the way, according to the Tampa Bay Times, the aggravated manslaughter charge carries a 30-year maximum prison sentence.

The other charges, right?

Child neglect, unlawfully holding and removing human remains, valued and reported death.

That could be up to 25 years in prison.

Now, it does become a question when the baby is back, one on top of the other, right?

Consecutive sentences, concurrent all at the same time.

Interesting to think about.

So all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us.

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I'll see you next time, everybody.