Woman charged with 'throwing baby from NYC window'

A charity worker has appeared in court in New York, accused of throwing her newborn baby daughter out of a window to her death.

Jennifer Berry, 33, was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter at the court in the Bronx on Monday.

The girl was found in a rubbish-strewn alleyway last week, her umbilical cord still attached.

Prosecutors now say they are re-examining the March 2008 death of Ms Berry's infant son.

The death of the two-and-a-half-week-old boy was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome.

Ms Berry had worked for family charities and in the child protective services branch of the New York City Administration for Children's Services, according to the New York Times.

'Torn apart'

Ms Berry's friends and family did not even realise she was pregnant, authorities said - as she had told them she had miscarried or had an abortion weeks before.

Under questioning, she also initially denied having been pregnant before claiming to have given birth to a stillborn baby in the shower, they said.

But prosecutors say the baby died from blunt force trauma - meaning the baby was alive when she was thrown from the seventh-floor window of her boyfriend's apartment. They say Ms Berry knew she was alive.

Ms Berry is now in custody until the date of her next court appearance on 27 October.

"This situation has me really sad," a man who identified himself as Giovanni Johnson, Ms Berry's boyfriend, told the New York Times.

He said he believed he was the father of the dead baby.

"I lost a daughter, you know what I mean?"

Mr Johnson's mother, Tressonya Johnson, told the newspaper her family was "really going through something right now - a real big hardship. "We're torn apart."