A woman who caused the death of her newborn child that was dumped in a trash receptacle behind a Riverside business almost four decades ago pleaded guilty on Thursday, Nov. 20, to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to four years of felony probation.
Melissa Jean Allen Avila, 56, of North Carolina had originally been charged with first-degree murder.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice on Thursday, Superior Court Judge Gary Polk certified the agreement and imposed the probation.
Avila, who has remained free on her own recognizance, was arrested in August 2024 following an investigation by the Riverside Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case Unit.
Officer Ryan Railsback, a police spokesman, said detectives reopened the baby-death case in 2020.
The newborn girl was discovered on Oct. 13, 1987, by a man looking for bottles and cans in a trash bin behind a business in the 5400 block of La Sierra Avenue. Avila was 19.
DNA samples were taken from the tot’s remains and preserved.
Railsback said the forensic evidence was used to find and positively identify Avila as the mother. He noted that investigators “have no reason to believe the baby’s father had any criminal culpability in the murder.”
A possible motive was not disclosed, nor was the specific manner of death.
