A northern Nebraska teen this week learned she will spend the next 35 to 60 years in prison after pleading no contest to second-degree murder for slitting her newborn baby son’s throat after giving birth in her bedroom.
Sheridan County District Court Judge Travis O’Gorman handed down the sentence Thursday to Chloe Coplen-Anderson, 18, after she pleaded no contest last August to second-degree murder in connection with her newborn’s death in 2023.
Coplen-Anderson, now 18, had hid her pregnancy from others, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by People.
An officer with the Gordon Police Department arrived at Coplen-Anderson’s home on November 6, 2023, after receiving a report of a teenage girl giving birth to a baby boy who was not breathing, the affidavit states.
The officer arrived to find Coplen-Anderson’s father saying he believed the child had been stillborn and that it was too late to save the baby.
However, the defendant’s mother wept as she then identified her daughter as the baby’s killer. The child’s throat had been cut through the windpipe, with multiple stab wounds on the left side of his chest, investigators said.
Gordon is a small village of less than 2,000 in northern Nebraska, not twenty miles from the South Dakota border.
The teen’s attorney, Todd Lancaster, cited mitigating circumstance that led to Coplen-Anderson’s tragic act. She was 15 at the time of the pregnancy, he said. The father was 19, a violation of the state’s statutory rape law.
The attorney also called witnesses who testified that the young mother suffered multiple mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He also argued that no adult had stepped in to help the pregnant mother.
As it stands, Coplen-Anderson will be at least 51 years old when she is released from prison. The judge agreed to credit her for the 500 days she has already been behind bars.
Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other novels and nonfiction crime titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
