A Nebraska mother who pleaded guilty to giving her teenage daughter pills for an abortion and helping to burn and bury the fetus was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison.
Jessica Burgess, a 42-year-old woman pleaded guilty in July to tampering with human remains, false reporting, and providing an abortion after at least 20 weeks of gestation, which is illegal in Nebraska.
Madison County District Judge Mark Johnson sentenced her on Friday to one year in prison for each count, with the first two to run concurrently.
The sentence for the abortion count was ordered to run after the first two, amounting to a two-year sentence.
Burgess, of Norfolk, Nebraska, admitted at her plea hearing to helping her 17-year-old daughter end her pregnancy.
As part of her plea, charges of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician were dismissed.
Her daughter, Celeste Burgess, who is now 19, was sentenced in July to 90 days in jail and two years of probation for burning and burying the fetus. She was released from jail Sept. 11.
Both Jessica Burgess and her daughter, who was in the courtroom Friday, wept as the elder woman was taken away in handcuffs to begin serving her sentence, the NBC reported. She will be eligible for release after about a year.
The abortion, which was well into the teen’s third trimester, violated Nebraska law at the time that banned abortion after 20 weeks of gestation. Officials have said Jessica Burgess ordered abortion pills online and gave them to her daughter in the spring of 2022.
NBC
Top popular
Post comments (0)