SKOWHEGAN, Maine — The Fairfield mother charged in the death of her newborn son on Dec. 31 made her first court appearance Monday on a murder charge.
Kayla Stewart, 20, who appeared via video conference, was not asked to enter a plea at Skowhegan District Court because she has not been indicted by the Somerset County grand jury.
District Court Judge Charles LaVerdiere ordered that the affidavit in the case be sealed. No information about how the baby died was released other than the date of his death.
Stewart is charged with intentional or knowing murder or, in the alternative, depraved indifference murder.
Timothy Feeley, spokesman for the Maine attorney general’s office, said Monday in an email that the case remains under investigation.
Assistant Attorney General John Alsop, who is prosecuting the case, declined after Stewart’s brief court appearance to comment on what evidence led to her arrest or if he expected someone else would be charged in the case.
Alsop arrived at the courthouse after the hearing had begun. Brent Davis, assistant district attorney for Somerset County, stood in for Alsop for much of the hearing.
Members of Stewart’s family and friends declined to comment after the hearing but wept throughout the proceeding.
Stewart was arrested about 4 p.m. Friday at her home on Route 139 in Fairfield.
LaVerdiere ordered she be held without bail at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison until a hearing can be set to determine if she can be released on bail. A decision about whether her family would hire an attorney or one would be appointed to represent her because she is indigent had not been made when the hearing convened about 1:30 p.m. Monday.
Maine State Police detectives began investigating the infant’s death on Jan. 11 after they received a report that the remains of a full-term fetus had been found in the detached garage of the mobile home where Stewart lived with her boyfriend.
Stewart’s 3-year-old daughter is staying with relatives, according to a previously published report.