RivCo woman admits to killing her newborn, immediately sentenced
A 33-year-old woman who killed her newborn son and dumped him in a Perris trash bin pleaded guilty today to child cruelty and other offenses and was immediately sentenced to 12 years in state prison, though the term was reduced due to incarceration credits.
Brittany Suzanne Peevyhouse of Perris admitted the abuse count and sentence-enhancing allegations of inflicting great bodily injury and perpetrating an offense against a vulnerable victim under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.
In exchange for Peevyhouse's admissions, prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her.
During a hearing Friday at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Prevost certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense. Because of credit for time served in county jail awaiting disposition of her case, along with state- mandated credits aimed at reducing prison overcrowding, Peevyhouse's term of imprisonment was effectively reduced to just over eight years.
She was arrested in October 2021 following a nine-month-long Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the death of the infant, identified in court documents only as "Damion R."
According to sheriff's Sgt. Michael Hamilton, the newborn was discovered in the 1700 block of Goetz Road, near Ellis Avenue. Hamilton said passers-by found Damion on the afternoon of Jan. 22 "discarded in the trash" at the location and called 911.
An autopsy revealed that the child was not stillborn but died of trauma, though the specific details were not disclosed.
Hamilton said the "parents'' were both involved, but only the mother, Peevyhouse, was taken into custody. The father's identity was not provided by authorities. He was not charged in the case.
The defendant had no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.
