HENDERSONVILLE - An attempted murder charge against a mother police initially said threw her infant daughter over a 30-foot ravine has been dropped, with conditions.
Krista Noelle Madden, a Biltmore Park resident, was charged with first-degree attempted murder after her infant daughter was found 30 feet down a steep, heavily forested ravine in rural Henderson County on May 9, 2019. Police said Madden threw the baby over the ravine s edge, though Madden described placing the baby on the ground in interviews with police, according to search warrants.
Her attorney, Sean Devereux, said this week that psychological evaluations showed Madden was going through acute postpartum depression, as well as sleep deprivation, that resulted in a psychotic episode. Madden believed someone was going to harm her baby, so she drove to a rural part of eastern Henderson County and placed the baby at the bottom of an embankment, Devereux said.
Henderson County District Attorney Greg Newman told the Citizen Times his decision to prosecute an alleged sexual assault case at Asheville School might hinge on public efforts to remove him from office.
The affidavit to remove Newman was filed under a relatively obscure law known as General Statute 7A-66. It was initiated Feb. 11 by more than a dozen families in North Carolina prosecutorial district 42, which encompasses Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties.
They filed the petition in Henderson County Superior Court. On March 3, Superior Court Judge Peter Knight referred it to Judge Robert C. Ervin, who has 30 days from that day - or until April 3 - to act on the motion, which could lead to a public hearing or to dismissal of the motion.