The woman who killed her newborn child and left his body in Washington Park more than 27 years ago was sentenced on Friday to 25 years in prison in what the judge called a “tragedy beyond measure.”

Keri Mazzuca, 52, admitted to smothering her baby boy after he was born in September 1997. She then wrapped him in a towel, lit the towel on fire to destroy her fingerprints and then dumped the body in a flower bed at Washington Park.

In 2020, Albany Police partnered with the cold case analysis center at the former College of Saint Rose to take a fresh look at the case, since DNA technology had significantly advanced since 1997.

Mazzuca was arrested last September. She pleaded guilty in February to manslaughter.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Blain-Lewis said that whenever there is a homicide, she has the privilege listening to family members comment on the loved ones.

However, she does not have that opportunity with this sentencing because she is the only person who interacted with her child.

Blain-Lewis said that his short-lived life was “filled with nothing but suffering and pain, and that suffering and pain came at the hands of the defendant.”

Blain-Lewis responded to a motion submitted by defense counsel that laid out 24 other cases in which women have caused the death of their own babies. She said the only thing similar to these cases is women killed their babies.

Blain-Lewis noted that in other cases, the victims were teenagers, were raped, had drug issues, or mental health issues.  

Mazzuca has none of those issues, Blain-Lewis wrote in quoting from the presentence report. She has failed to take responsibility in her statements to law enforcement.  

Mazzuca even wrote a letter for the pre-sentence report: “I do not want to rehash the events of Sept. 6, 1997, and you know that,” Blain-Lewis said.

“Keri Mazzuca doesn’t want to admit to you her involvement in what she actually did,” Blain-Lewis said.

 Blain-Lewis said Muzzuca changes her story and panders to whoever she is talking to.

Mazzuca did not completely admit to setting the baby on fire – despite the photographic evidence.

“She not only didn’t want to have the baby. She wanted to completely erase its existence,” she said.

Blain-Lewis quoted the pre-sentencing read at length. The person who interviewed Mazzuca said she told her there weren’t the safe havens or options for people to abandon a baby, according to Blain-Lewis. That is not true.

The prosecution also told the person who wrote the report that she considered herself to be an upstanding citizen.

“In this writer’s opinion, the defendant presents as the polar opposite of an upstanding citizen,” Blain-Lewis said.

Mazzuca said the negotiated sentence of 22 to 25 years is not “fair,” and that her surviving child needs his life.  
The defendant went on to live her life having gotten away with the killing for over two decades – if she hadn’t gotten caught,” she said.

Mazzuca was not agonizing over what she did all that time, according to Blain-Lewis.

“This writer is under the impression that there is literally not true remorse felt by the defendant. She was sorry she was caught,” Blain-Lewis said.

Mazzuca’s defense attorney, Andrew Safranko, said it is a tough case for everybody involved.

“No one, judge, wants to be judged on their worse acts or actions. That’s what’s happening today, and frankly deservedly so.”

Her actions were an aberration,” Safranko said.

He noted that his client had lived an upstanding life and received letters of support from her family. Mazzuca worked for a prominent real estate firm for over 24 years. The firm does much community-based service.  

“Did she commit a terrible act? Does she deserve to be punished? A thousand percent?” he said.

Mazzuca made a brief statement when given the opportunity.

“I want to say I’m sorry. I did a horrible, unimaginable thing, and I live with remorse and regret. I am a great mom. I lived a law-abiding life. I do deserve a lengthy sentence. I just hope you’d use some discretion and go with the lower end” she said.  

Judge Roger McDonough said the case was a tragedy and asked how he could measure what the boy could have accomplished in his life.

“How can I measure the joy and love he would have had in his life or the joy he would have given to others, including his own mother and siblings, who he never had a chance to do because his mother snuffed out his life,” he said.

“How do I measure that against the darkness, the selfishness, the malevolence of a mother who could nurture a child in her womb for nine months and snuff them out after only a few minutes,” he said.

McDonough hand out the maximum sentence of 25 years.

“It’s a tragedy beyond measure, because what possible sentence could this court impose that would compensate or address the death sentence you gave to baby Moses or the life sentence you gave to yourself,” he said.