By Rich Pollack
Charges against a 29-year-old Boynton Beach woman accused of killing her newborn daughter and later tossing her into the Boynton Inlet have been reduced to second-degree murder.
Prosecutors now say the death of the infant known as Baby June in 2018 does not appear to be premeditated.
Arya Singh, who was originally charged with first- degree murder by investigators at the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the second-degree murder charges.
Prosecutors with the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office have also charged Singh with abuse of a dead human body, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Detectives, in announcing the arrest of Singh late last year, said it appears that the baby — born two days before she was found in the water — was dead before she was put in the inlet.
In paperwork filed with the court, prosecutors accuse Singh of killing the baby by asphyxiation, “although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual.”
Singh’s arrest in mid-December came 41/2 years after Baby June’s body was found on June 1, 2018, by an off-duty Boynton Beach firefighter.
With no one claiming responsibility for the infant’s death, sheriff’s detectives launched an exhaustive search that involved going over hundreds of birth records as well as making several public appeals for information.
The break in the case came when members of the sheriff’s forensic biology unit identified relatives of the father using DNA evidence.
Armed with the lead — gathered in part through a public database — detectives met with the father, who led them to Singh.
The father said he was unaware of Baby June’s birth and has not been charged with a crime.
Singh last month entered a plea of not guilty.
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