By RUMMANNA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
Mubashra Uddin | Cook County sheriff's office
Mubashra Uddin has been depressed since she was accused of dropping her newborn baby from a window of her family’s eighth-floor Uptown apartment, her lawyers said in court Thursday.A close friend also said Uddin may have been overwhelmed by the pressure that comes with being raised in a pious immigrant family.
“At that moment she probably wasn’t thinking and she cracked ... because the Mubashra I know wouldn’t do something like this if she was in right state of mind,” Uddin’s childhood friend “Nina O” wrote in a letter to Cook County Judge James Brown.
As Uddin stood with her head bowed in court Thursday, her attorney Barry Sheppard urged the judge to set bail for the 19-year-old.
“Standing before you is someone who is heartbroken and sad. ... She is a confused, older teenager,” Sheppard said. “She’s extremely contrite. She’s saddened. She’s been crying.”
But after hearing the details of the baby girl’s death, Brown ordered Uddin remain held without bond in Cook County Jail while she awaits trial for murder.
“Dropping a baby out of an eighth-story window to its eventual death is exceedingly evil and exceedingly cruel,” the judge said.
Judge Peggy Chiampas originally ordered Uddin held without bond on Saturday while she was hospitalized. Since she had a surgical procedure, Uddin’s lawyers filed a motion to set bail so she could get out of jail.
The naked, bloody and still-breathing baby was found in a grassy area by a neighbor on the night of Nov. 11. The neighbor wrapped the baby in his shirt, got two blankets and waited for an ambulance that took her to Weiss Memorial Hospital. The girl died over an hour later, Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Turnock said.
Uddin, a Muslim of Pakistani descent, hid the pregnancy from her parents because she thought they wouldn’t approve, authorities said.
The only people who knew she was pregnant were her boyfriend—who her parents didn’t approve of; and another friend, Turnock said. She was able to conceal her pregnancy by wearing baggy clothes and never sought prenatal care.
Uddin gave birth to a 7-pound, 11-ounce girl in her bedroom at 11:20 p.m. while her 10-year-old sister slept, Turnock said.
Minutes later, when Uddin heard her mother approaching the bedroom, she opened the window, held the baby out head first and released her grip, Turnock said.
Police found blood on the floor and a window in Uddin’s bedroom in the 800 block of West Eastwood, Turnock said. They also found blood on the toilet, bloody sheets, bloody scissors allegedly used to cut the umbilical cord, and clothes that had been washed.
Uddin first denied being pregnant but then made incriminating statements on tape, Turnock said.
Sheppard told reporters that while Uddin comes from a religiously conservative background, it doesn’t mean her parents don’t love her. They support her “100 percent,” the defense attorney said.
Uddin’s father and teary-eyed mother declined comment but shook their head in agreement while standing with another relative and Uddin’s former counselor from Walt Disney Magnet School.
The counselor described Uddin, who waved to her parents in court, as a model student and a “sweetheart.”
Uddin’s boyfriend’s mother also expressed support and said she wasn’t “in the right state of mind” at the time of the incident. The young woman’s family was “strict” and pulled her out of high school once they found out about the relationship, she said.
Uddin, who had been attending DeVry University on a scholarship, has been receiving treatment for depression while in Cook County Jail, Sheppard said, adding the baby’s fall may have been “accidental.”
Sheppard and his partner, Adam Sheppard, gave the judge several letters of support from Uddin’s neighbors, classmates and teachers.
A friend, Sahdia Uddin, described Mubashra Uddin as “a very kind, caring and loving girl who should not spend the rest of her life in jail. … Mubashra is not a monster.”