Five years after Jenifer Marie Tupper was accused of murdering her newborn son in a backyard cottage on Leghorn Street, Santa Clara County prosecutors have dropped the case. Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Malinsky said her office no longer believes it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the baby’s death was a homicide, and the 36-year-old Mountain View woman is now free after nearly four years in jail.
Court records show Malinsky agreed to dismiss the murder and child abuse charges last Wednesday, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post. Malinsky, who was named Santa Clara County’s top felony trial attorney in February 2026 through the Napoleon J. Menard Award for her work on complex homicide cases, told the paper it became a tough case to prove once outside medical experts weighed in against the original findings.
What Happened at the Leghorn Street Cottage
Tupper gave birth to her baby on August 2, 2021, inside a backyard cottage on Leghorn Street owned by her boyfriend’s family, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post. She told doctors at El Camino Hospital that the baby had been in a bag, and police say she had called a friend, who then called police. Officers later read a journal entry back to Tupper at the police station, one in which she had written, “If there is any way to do all of this without anyone finding out, I’d be extremely excited.”
Her journal also contained entries about resolving the pregnancy legally or illegally, which Malinsky said could be interpreted as writing about an abortion. Tupper told investigators she had been walking to the sink to get scissors to cut the umbilical cord and claimed she fell on her baby and struck him with her elbow. She used a jacket to cover the baby, who was born face down and was not breathing, and she reportedly refused to look at his face.
Coroner’s Findings Versus Defense Experts
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner found the baby suffered extensive trauma to his face and neck, along with a broken left arm and brain bleeding, findings that formed the basis of the original 2021 arrest and August 6, 2021 felony filing in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Mountain View Police arrested Tupper on August 4, 2021, two days after the birth, following an autopsy that initially determined the baby had been born alive and died from significant injuries, according to CBS News…