Jury finds a North Myrtle Beach woman guilty of killing her newborn children

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) – A jury has found a North Myrtle Beach woman guilty in the deaths of her two newborn children.

The case against Alyssa Dayvault was given to the jury Thursday morning. They returned with the verdict about 90 minutes later. It was a unanimous verdict on two counts of homicide by child abuse.

In the closing arguments, the state brought up Dayvault’s attempts to hide that she was pregnant and had a baby. The prosecution also talked about how Dayvault tried to claim she gave up the child in 2017 before admitting to throwing it in the trash.

Meanwhile, the defense said it’s not child neglect not to seek prenatal care if there isn’t anything wrong with your pregnancy or if you give birth at home.

The defense said the state didn’t prove the fact that if Dayvault called EMS, the baby would’ve survived.

Opening statements were delivered in Dayvault’s case Wednesday morning. She has been a no-show in court, but the trial has continued in her absence.

There is a bench warrant out for Dayvault’s arrest for her failure to appear that has been issued nationwide, according to the prosecution. Her sentence will be sealed and opened when she is arrested on that warrant, the solicitor said.

In their opening statement, the prosecution told the jury this isn’t a murder trial. It’s about Dayvault’s negligence and “extreme indifference of human life.”

Meanwhile, her defense argued the state’s case is just a theory.

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The state presented a doctor from the Medical University of South Carolina as their final witness Thursday morning.

Dayvault admitted to law enforcement that she had a baby girl in November 2017 and a baby boy in December 2018, prosecutors said. She had life-threatening complications after the second birth and was forced to seek medical attention and that was when the pregnancies were discovered, according to information from the Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

Dayvault initially denied being pregnant but after being confronted with medical evidence, she admitted she gave birth at home, and that both babies were alive and breathing after birth, according to the solicitor’s office. She said she threw the babies in a waste receptacle at her home.