Probation for baby's death

A Cook County Juvenile Court judge has sentenced a 16-year-old Sauk Village girl who suffocated her newborn daughter and placed the baby in the trash to five years of probation and counseling. There was a discussion among court officials, the prosecution and the girl's attorneys about sentencing her to time in juvenile detention. But they determined the girl would be better served if she remains in the custody of her mother. The girl, who is not being named because she is a juvenile, was arrested in October 2006 after she told detectives she secretly gave birth in the middle of the night in the bathroom of her house. She was found guilty of second-degree murder and concealing a homicide.