Man accused of killing newborn baby faces teen victim he allegedly got pregnant

ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. — Seconds after the baby was born, police said his father choked the life out of him.

Channel 11 was the only one there as a Lawrence County man, Chris Kennedy, who is behind bars for murdering a newborn baby, faced a judge and the young woman police say he victimized and got pregnant.

“She’s a victim considering her age and the manipulation and the power this gentleman had over her,” said the teen’s attorney, Dennis Eilisco.

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The teenage girl, now 18, took the stand and told the judge she started up a relationship with Kennedy at 14 years old and became pregnant at 16 years old. She also said he hatched a plan that if they ever got found out, she would take the blame. Now she’s cooperating with police and testifying against the man she says she once loved.

Police: Man killed his baby hours after it was born to 15-year-old girl, encased body in cement

The teen said she hid the pregnancy until she delivered secretly at home. She told the court Kennedy was there and said “We have to get rid of it. He began to put his hands on the baby’s neck and choke it with a towel.”

She testified, “He told me to get in the shower and he would clean this up. He put the baby in my room in a plastic bag.”

Police said Kennedy then put the baby in a safe filled with concrete and left the evidence in the teen’s bedroom.

The infant’s mom admitted she lied to police when first questioned, telling the judge, “I was still in love with him and was trying to protect him. I told the police I did it.”

“I think when a man in his mid-30s has this kind of connection or relationship with a 14-year-old child, things like this could happen and she was essentially powerless. But she’s doing the right thing now,” Elisco said.

The teen spent eight months in the hospital -- the first two weeks on a ventilator and underwent 38 surgeries.

Police said they don’t plan to charge her. Kennedy told us when he was arrested that he didn’t do it, but he is scheduled to go on trial on murder and many other charges.