‘Baby Angel Hope’ was found dead in the Catawba River. A conviction comes 31 years later

A South Carolina mother has been sentenced to life in prison after a jury found her guilty of homicide by child abuse.

The conviction and sentencing comes 31 years after her baby was found dead in a York County river.

Yet because the crime happened more than 30 years ago when South Carolina sentencing laws were different, Stacy Michelle Rabon will be eligible for parole in eight years.

Jury finds York County SC mother guilty of baby homicide in 1992 cold case river death

Rabon, 50, was convicted Aug. 11 in a trial at the Moss Justice Center in York. She had been arrested in 2021 after DNA in a national database from her 2019 drug arrest matched DNA from the baby. The infant girl was found dead in the Catawba River near Rock Hill on Aug. 12, 1992.

The baby was stabbed dozens of times, suffocated, wrapped in a sheet, then put in a plastic bag that was left in the river, prosecutors said.

The death was unsolved for almost three decades. The female infant was named “Baby Angel Hope” by the community and buried in 1992 without identification.

Sentencing had been deferred until Wednesday. South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Bill McKinnon said in court Wednesday life in prison is appropriate.

“A newborn comes into this world looking for its parents to protect it,” McKinnon said in court. “This baby was stabbed more than 50 times.”

Parole eligibility in 2031

Rabon was sentenced to life. But because the crime happened in 1992, sentencing falls under 1992 sentencing laws.

In 1992, a person sentenced to life in prison for homicide by child abuse was eligible for parole after 10 years, or 25 percent of the sentence -- whichever came sooner.

For Rabon that means, she’s eligible for parole after 10 years.

Rabon is eligible for parole in eight years because she gets credit for the two years she had been in jail since 2021, 16th Circuit Deputy Solicitor John Anthony said.

Sentencing laws have changed since 1992. Current sentencing laws allow for possible release after serving 85 percent of this sentence, prosecutors said.

Baby found dead in 1992

The child was delivered in a van near the river.

During the trial, prosecutors said Rabon told deputies in 2021 before she was arrested that she gave the child up for adoption.

That claim was never substantiated during the trial, prosecutors Anthony and Leslie Robinson said after court.

After court, Anthony said prosecutors believe the claim was not true. Anthony said to news reporters that Rabon likely made up the story.

“She (Rabon) will never admit to what she did,” Anthony said.

Rabon speaks for the first time in court

Rabon did not testify during her trial but spoke in court Wednesday.

“I made very poor choices when I was young...I know what I did more than anybody,” Rabon said in court. “Because I cared.”

McKinnon asked Rabon if the actions she was referring to were the alleged claim about giving the child up for adoption. Rabon said to McKinnon that she decided in 1992 to give the baby up for adoption.

Rabon asked McKinnon for mercy before she was sentenced.

Prosecutors and deputies ask for life in prison

Prosecutors and law enforcement asked for life in prison. They said the baby had been stabbed and had cocaine in its system.

Robinson said after court a team effort of deputies and others worked together in the case, which was decades old and had been cold for years. The DNA match came about after the 1992 cold case DNA was re-examined.

“This case was a miracle for that baby,” Robinson said.

York County Sheriff’s Office deputy Lanelle Day, a detective who investigated after the DNA connection, said the baby never had a chance .

“Stacy Rabon threw her baby into that cold Catawba River,” Day said in court Wednesday. “Never looking back, abandoning her, keeping her secret for 29 years....This was a cruel, senseless crime.”

Defense asked for lighter sentence

Rabon appeared in court in a wheelchair.

She needs surgeries for medical conditions, said Rabon’s lead lawyer, 16th Circuit Deputy Public Defender Phil Smith.

“She was a much different person as a 19-year-old,” Smith said of Rabon.

What happens now?

Rabon has 10 days to appeal the verdict and sentence.

Rabon has been in custody since her arrest in 2021. She now will be transferred to the S.C. Department of Corrections, officials said.

Because the jury could not agree on a murder charge against Rabon and ended up hung, the murder charge remains pending, prosecutors said after court Wednesday.