WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The mother of a newborn baby found floating in the Boynton Beach Inlet more than five years ago will spend the next 14 years behind bars after pleading guilty on Wednesday.
Arya Singh, 30, was charged with second-degree murder in the high-profile case of "Baby June," but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child, along with abuse of a dead human body.
Singh was sentenced to 14 years in a Florida state prison, with a credit of 231 days for time already served in jail. Following her release, Singh will be on probation for 10 years.
Singh was arrested in December of last year for the death of "Baby June," whose naked body was discovered by an off-duty Boynton Beach firefighter in the Boynton Beach Inlet on June 1, 2018.
Singh had originally pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder on Jan. 13.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Forensic Biology Unit used a pilot program to help identify the newborn child's father and, ultimately, her mother.
Det. Brittany Christoffel with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said detectives were able to search Singh's cell phone records and determined she had been at the inlet on May 30, 2018, about 40 hours before the baby's body was discovered.
Christoffel said Singh also searched news stories about the baby's discovery in the days that followed.
According to Singh's arrest affidavit, from May 30, 2018 until June 30, 2018, there were 574 searches for "Boynton inlet." There were also 34 searches for "palm beach county news" between May 30, 2018 at 11:20 p.m. and May 31, 2018 at 9:28 p.m.
Christoffel said Singh gave birth to "Baby June" in a hotel room bathroom, and the newborn died of asphyxia.
Following Wednesday's sentencing, the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office released the following statement:
"Ms. Singh went to a hotel room alone and gave birth to a child. As a result of her actions or inactions, the baby died. Ms. Singh never called 911, she never sought medical treatment, she never asked for help for her child, and she never dropped the baby off at a fire station. As the child’s mother, under the circumstances she placed herself in, she was the only person who could have saved that child’s life. Instead she disposed of her baby in the Boynton Inlet, in the hopes no one would know what she had done. There must be a consequence for that. And in this case, the consequence is 14 years of prison followed by 10 years of probation. Justice has been served with this sentence."