Wasilla area woman to be arraigned for baby’s death

WASILLA — A local woman sent to Colorado this summer to face charges she killed her newborn baby will appear in a courtroom there Nov. 17.

According to an account of a recent pre-trial hearing published in the Grand Junction (Colo.) Sentinel, Morgan Hite, 23, was in court Oct. 6, at which point she waived a preliminary hearing. The next step in the case is a Nov. 17 arraignment, according to the Sentinel.

Hite was arrested at the Alaska State Troopers’ Palmer post in early May. She was there to speak with Colorado investigators in town to find her. She awaits trial in a Colorado jail. The charge she faces, first-degree murder, in Colorado carries a potential death penalty.

Attempts to reach Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger were not successful before press time.

Less than a month after Hite’s arrest, Governor Palin signed an extradition order — a necessary step when police wish to bring defendants to a different jurisdiction — and Hite was on her way to Colorado.

According to Sentinel reports taken from Hite’s case file, police received a report of a dead baby April 29 and went to the home where Hite had been staying with her father and stepmother. There, they found the baby had been wrapped in a plastic bag and hidden in a container in a closet. The baby had been dead two months.

Hite told investigators she hid her pregnancy from her family, giving birth at a neighbor’s home. At the time she gave birth, “the baby was blue with white on the hands and feet. … the eyes were not open and the baby was not breathing or moving,” Hite told investigators, according to the Daily Sentinel.

But Mesa Count Coroner’s Office reports show the baby was born alive. As to why she hid the baby’s body, “Morgan stated she couldn’t put the baby in a trash can and just throw it away,” the case file says. “Morgan indicated that there is no excuse for what she did, but everything started snowballing and she felt like she couldn’t turn back.”

Hite, who hails from Wasilla, was by then back in Alaska. Police worked to build a case against her before coming to the state.

According to court records, the child was not Hite’s first. A custody suit filed at around the time of Hite’s extradition lists Nathan Pokryfki of Wasilla as the father of a 4-year-old girl over whom he once shared custody with Hite.

Pokryfki sued Hite for full custody. According to court records, the case was not contested and was decided in his favor Sept. 4.