CONCORD, N.H. — The trial began Thursday for the daughter of baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who is accused of abandoning her baby after giving birth in the woods in subfreezing temperatures on Christmas night in 2022.
Attorneys for Alexandra Eckersley, 27, said she didn't know she was pregnant, thought the child had died, and was suffering from substance use disorder and mental health issues.
She was homeless at the time and gave birth in a tent in New Hampshire. Prosecutors said her son was left alone for more than an hour as temperatures dipped to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 9.4 degrees Celsius) and suffered respiratory distress and hypothermia.
Alexandra Eckersley pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, reckless conduct, falsifying evidence and endangering the welfare of a child.
She was bleeding heavily and thought she had suffered a miscarriage, defense attorney Jordan Strand said during opening statements in the Manchester trial. A boyfriend who was with her said the baby did not have a pulse, Strand said.
“She was in a heightened emotional state, not thinking clearly, and suffering from symptoms of her bipolar disorder,” a condition she was diagnosed with as a child, Strand said.
Strand said the couple had no cellphone service to call for help and started walking toward an ice arena. On their way, Alexandra Eckersley experienced afterbirth, but thought she had a second child. She told a 911 dispatcher that she had given birth to two children, and that one had lived for less than a minute, and the other died immediately, Strand said.
She told the dispatcher and police where she lived and pointed to the area, which was across a bridge. But police ignored what she told them, Strand said. She also was afraid to return to the tent because her boyfriend, who had left when police arrived, told her he didn't want anyone else there, Strand said.
The man arrested along with Alexandra Eckersley was sentenced last August to a year in jail after pleading guilty to a child endangerment charge and was expected to testify at her trial.
Prosecutor Alexander Gatzoulis said Eckersley intentionally led first responders to a different location, because she did not want to get into trouble.
“Nearly after an hour after she gave birth, she told them a new fact for the first time: The baby was crying when she gave birth,” Gatzoulis said. “This completely changed the landscape of the search and increased everyone's urgency because now they were looking for a baby, and not a corpse.”
She eventually led police to the tent. The baby was found, cold, blue, covered in blood — but alive, Gatzoulis said.
He said that the defense may discuss Alexandra Eckersley's mental illness, “but none of that negates her purposeful actions here by lying about where the baby was and leading the search party away from her child for well over an hour."
She has been living full-time with her son and family in Massachusetts since earlier this year.
The Eckersley family released a statement shortly after she was arrested, saying they had no prior knowledge of her pregnancy and were in complete shock. The family said she has suffered from “severe mental illness her entire life” and that they did their very best to get her help and support.
Dennis Eckersley was drafted by Cleveland out of high school in 1972 and went on to pitch 24 seasons for Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, Oakland and St. Louis. He won the AL Cy Young and MVP awards in 1992 while playing for the Oakland Athletics. After his playing days, Eckersley retired in 2022 from broadcasting Boston Red Sox games.
