Did Heidi Anfinson murder her baby?

Faced again with the loss of her freedom, Heidi Anfinson grabbed hold of all the support she could from her friends, family, and from her most steadfast supporter— her husband Mike.

Mike Anfinson: We thought since one trial ended in a mistrial. We had some ammunition that would maybe carry us through and win this trial.

And when the second trial began, with few exceptions, it was a virtual replay of the first.

Prosecutors again claimed there was plenty of evidence Jacob Anfinson was drowned by his mother in Saylorville lake.

But the defense again countered that Heidi loved her baby and that the baby died not at the lake, but in an accident, when Heidi foolishly left him alone in an infant tub.

And after just four days of testimony and eight hours of deliberation, the jury was back with its verdict.

Murder in the second degree
The jury found Heidi Anfinson guilty of murder in the second degree.

Mike Anfinson: I mean, my son died. And now you take away my wife you know. What else do you want to take? It’s a tragedy that never ends for the rest of our lives.

Since her conviction in February 2000, Heidi Anfinson has been held at the Iowa correctional institution for women. Her sentence? 50 years. And no chance for parole, until the year 2035 when she is 75 years old.

Hoda Kotb, Dateline correspondent: Heidi, Have you resigned yourself when you look around this place to say “This is where I’m going to be for the rest of my life?”

Heidi Anfinson: No!

Kotb: You’re pretty defiant…

Heidi Anfinson: Well I just can’t come to that place yet, no.

Kotb: How can you be so positive?

Heidi Anfinson: Hopefully someday, I’ll get to tell my story and people will trust and believe in me. That I didn’t maliciously kill Jacob.

Anfinson claims it was a mistake not to tell the jury her story from the witness stand. And she says it’s obvious to her now, after therapy and research, that when Jacob was killed, she was suffering from a severe case of post-partum depression— the very syndrome her former lawyer once said should have no bearing on the case.

Kotb: Heidi tell me about the symptoms that you had back then that now red-flagged you to think "I had post-partum depression"?

Heidi Anfinson: I was maybe compulsively, obsessively plucking my leg hairs. I was pulling my pubic hair out all the way until I didn’t have any left...

Kotb: Then how come back then when it all happened you didn’t say to your attorney "This is what I have, it’s probably post-partum."

Heidi Anfinson: I mean, I’m not even sure if I knew at the time.

Kotb: Because a lot of people will think, "She told a lot of lies in the beginning."

Heidi Anfinson: Yes.

Kotb: She made stuff up. "I don’t know where the baby is," "The baby’s here," or there.

Heidi Anfinson: Yes I did.

Kotb: And is this just another lie in a long line of lies. [Isn't that just] another way to get out of it?

Heidi Anfinson: I’m sure some people will think that I know something had to have happened to me. Like I said, I’m not a monster. I loved Jacob. I loved my life. I loved my husband.

Asking for a new trial
And this past summer, in a Des Moines courtroom, Heidi Anfinson was asking for a new trial, alleging that trial attorney Bill Kutmus had not competently represented her by ignoring a defense centered on post-partum psychosis.

Bill Kutmus, Heidi Anfinson's defense lawyer: That’s ludicrous. That is ludicrous!

In court, Kutmus, a lawyer more accustomed to asking questions than taking the stand himself, was clearly agitated at suggestions he had not done his job.

Kutmus said Iowa law makes an insanity defense an uphill climb, so he went in another direction. But he admitted that he never sought a mental evaluation for Heidi, nor did he obtain psychiatric reports when she was hospitalized with suicidal thoughts after Jacob’s death.

Although prosecutors presented witnesses who disagreed, one defense lawyer testified it showed a lack of competence.

And Heidi’s father, who paid Kutmus more than $100,000 dollars, said he begged the attorney to consider looking for signs of mental illness, but was told this:

Irv Hoffbauer, Heidi’s father: What I understood was that she’d have to be “insane enough to be out eating s*** out in the streets.”

Alfredo Parrish, one of Heidi Anfinson's new defense lawyers: Were those his exact words?

Hoffbauer: That’s his exact words, positively. And I was floored.

But to refute the charges, the state of Iowa called its own experts to the stand, including the doctor who examined Heidi just days after the baby’s death when she was having suicidal thoughts.

The doctors said that Heidi Anfinson did not have symptoms of sufficient severity to make that diagnosis.

Polk County Attorney John Sarcone directed the state’s efforts to keep Heidi Anfinson behind bars for the murder of her son.

John Sarcone, Polk county attorney: There’s a little boy, who was two weeks old who died in this community, in a horrible act, and his mother has been convicted of that, and we think it was proper. It should be upheld and that there should be no new trial.

But Heidi’s attorneys had the last word, begging the judge for another chance, with a new lawyer, and new evidence that might explain her actions. Her attorneys plan to appeal the decision to the Iowa state Supreme Court. 

Meanwhile, Heidi must continue to serve her 50 year prison sentence. 

It has been seven years since the death of baby Jacob. Heidi’s family and her husband, Mike Anfinson, still stand by her.

Mike Anfinson: I can see the past, I have hope for the future, but I can only grasp the present. I really don’t look much further than that anymore, you know? You just set yourself up for failure.

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