Jennifer K. Bossler said Tuesday in Schuylkill County Court she would not have admitted prosecutors could have proven she killed her son in April 2012 in Pottsville if she had had all the medical information on him.
"I would have wanted to fight harder," Bossler, 30, of Pottsville, testified before Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin in support of her request to be allowed to withdraw her no contest plea that landed her behind state prison bars.
However, Assistant Public Defender Andrea L. Thompson, Bossler's former lawyer, said she examined all the medical records Bossler told her about and that her client decided to enter the plea in connection with the death of James Blake Bossler, 1.
"Ultimately, she made the decision," Thompson testified. "She knew what she was doing at the time of the plea bargain."
Dolbin made no decision at the end of the 45-minute hearing, instead giving Julie A. Werdt, Pottsville, Bossler's new lawyer, until March 5 to file a brief outlining reasons why her client should get a new trial and Assistant District Attorney Robert I. Lipkin until March 19 to file his brief demonstrating why the defendant should remain in prison.
Bossler pleaded no contest on Dec. 10, 2012, to criminal homicide and aggravated assault. Dolbin accepted the plea and, pursuant to an agreement between prosecutors and Bossler, sentenced her to spend 7 1/2 to 15 years in a state correctional institution, pay costs and $50 to the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account, undergo a mental health evaluation and submit a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities.
She is serving her sentence at SCI/Muncy in Lycoming County.
By pleading no contest, Bossler did not admit committing the crimes but offered no defense to them, agreed that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to prove her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and agreed to be sentenced as if she had been found, or pleaded, guilty.
Pottsville police charged Bossler with suffocating her son about 5:30 p.m. April 1, 2012, at her residence at 218 W. Market St., Apt. 2.
In order to be allowed to withdraw her plea, Bossler must prove she did not enter it knowingly and voluntarily.
Bossler and Thompson were the only two people who testified on Tuesday.
Wearing handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit, Bossler testified she never saw an X-ray taken when her son was a month old. That X-ray showed that his lungs did not fully expand, and Bossler said she would have gone to trial if she had known about that.
However, she said when cross-examined by Lipkin that she had taken her son for that X-ray and never mentioned it to Thompson.
"I didn't know what she had and what she didn't have," Bossler said.
She also said her son suffered from several medical difficulties, including breathing problems, ear infections and reflux.
When questioned by Dolbin, she said her son had improved significantly in the year after the X-ray.
In her testimony, Thompson said she obtained all the records, including ones from Schuylkill Medical Center, about which Bossler had told her, and that she showed them to her client.
"Every record I saw indicated there was no congenital defect," Thompson said.
Furthermore, Thompson said she followed up an all evidence and the plea was not based on the records alone.
"There were a lot of factors that went into it," including statements Bossler had made to police and other people, she said.Defendant: Jennifer K. Bossler
Age: 30
Residence: Pottsville
Plea: No contest plea to criminal homicide and aggravated assault
Prison sentence: 7 1/2 to 15 years in a state correctional institution