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For three decades, nobody in law enforcement knew who “Baby Jane Doe” was. The newborn female infant was found dead in the Catawba River in August 1992 in Rock Hill. She had been born alive but stabbed more than 50 times.
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She was buried in a nameless grave in Rock Hill with a headstone paid for by donations from the community under the name “Baby Angel Hope.”
Then, in 2021, DNA showed Stacy Michelle Rabon, 53, was the baby’s mother. Deputies arrested Rabon and in 2023, York County Judge Bill McKinnon sentenced her to life in prison after a jury convicted her of homicide by child abuse.
Wednesday, the S.C. Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the conviction and life sentence after Rabon claimed the judge’s instructions about witness credibility prejudiced her getting a fair trial in which she faced both murder and homicide by child abuse charges. The jury did not convict Rabon of murder, but convicted her of the killing by child abuse.
A three-judge appeals court panel said the judge “did not impermissibly comment on witness credibility” when instructing the jury about witnesses.
Several witnesses, including long-retired police and current staff, testified during the trial. Rabon did not testify but her videotaped statements to police during the investigation were shown, including her asking about a purported weapon found at the scene and her claiming not to have used drugs in 1992 even though cocaine was found in the baby’s system.
The appeals court ruled Judge McKinnon’s jury instructions were appropriate.
“In this case, the instruction did not favor any particular witness, nor did it suggest the charge was not applicable to any statement by the defendant. Further, the instruction did not indicate any particular statement was a mistake nor did it direct the jury to infer any conclusions from a mistake. The circuit court clarified: ‘So if a witness misstates something, you must decide whether it was because of an innocent lapse in memory or an intentional deception.’ The totality of the jury charge made clear the issue of credibility was for the jury. Therefore, we conclude the charge did not have the effect of giving an opinion on any witness’s testimony or the defendant’s statements or the weight they should be given.”
Prosecutor: Evidence showed Rabon was guilty
16th Circuit Deputy Solicitor John Anthony, who along with Leslie Robinson prosecuted Rabon in the 2023 trial, said Wednesday the appeals court decision confirms what prosecutors proved during the trial.
The DNA was a direct link from Rabon to the child, Anthony said. Yet during the 2023 trial, Rabon’s defense lawyers claimed the baby was alive when Rabon left it in the hands of someone who was supposed to adopt the child. Prosecutors balked at the time and now the court of appeals has upheld their position.
“The evidence showed Ms. Rabon was guilty and what the court of appeals ruling shows is she got a fair trial,” Anthony told The Herald.
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Baby identified by Rabon’s DNA after drug arrest
A bystander fishing in the river found the baby wrapped in a sheet inside a bag in the river. The investigation showed the girl had been born alive but died from having been stabbed with scissors that were also found in the bag, asphyxiation, or a combination of both causes. The case went cold for decades.
A break in the cold case came when Rabon was arrested for drugs in 2019 and her DNA went into a database. The DNA from the child matched hers, according to York County Sheriff’s office deputies and prosecutors.
Rabon did not deny the baby was hers when confronted by police three decades after the baby died. She claimed the baby was born in a van at riverside, and was being adopted by others. Police and prosecutors were never able to verify any of her claims that Rabon had purportedly given the child up for “adoption” immediately after giving birth in the van, or identify any person who allegedly was going to adopt the child.
After the jury convicted her, Rabon asked the judge for mercy in sentencing when she reiterated claims that she gave the baby up for adoption after birth.
“I made very poor choices when I was young … I know what I did more than anybody,” Rabon said in court in 2023. “Because I cared.”
McKinnon said in court when sentencing Rabon to life: “A newborn comes into this world looking for its parents to protect it. This baby was stabbed more than 50 times.”
What happens now? A supreme court case?
Rabon remains in the S.C. Department of Corrections Graham prison. But despite a life sentence, she is parole eligible in 2029. That’s because the crime happened in 1992 when South Carolina sentencing laws allowed for parole for the charge.
She has the right to ask the S.C. Supreme Court to hear her case, and even could appeal her conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It remains unclear if she will do so.
A call from The Herald to S.C. Department of Appellate Defense lawyer David Alexander, who represented Rabon on appeal, about Wednesday’s ruling and her future appeal plans, was not immediately returned.
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