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Woman accused of strangling baby with lights may get case thrown out

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A Seminole County woman accused of strangling her infant daughter with holiday lights and blaming her 2-year-old son is trying to get her case thrown out.

Lawyers for the mother claim the case has crumbled so badly, prosecutors should be stopped from going forward.

Their claim hinges on the fact that the medical examiner said the baby’s death was an accident.

Read: Mother accused of strangling infant with holiday lights leaves jail for 1st time since 2016

The defense argues there's no way to convict Kristen DePasquale of murder if no one's willing to classify her daughter's death as a homicide.

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A letter from the Brevard County Medical Examiner claims that a toddler has the strength to strangle an infant and cause a loss of consciousness in 10 to 20 seconds.

It's been four months since prosecutors first admitted they had a major hole in the murder case.

"She was extremely happy on the phone yesterday when she was told that today was going to happen. Tearfully ecstatic," said public defender Jared Shapiro.

DePasquale's lawyer tells me he's waited long enough for the state to dismiss this case, so now he's forcing the issue.

Originally, the Volusia County Medical Examiner looked at Mia DePasquale's body, looked at the Halloween lights used to strangle her, decided her younger brother couldn't have done it and ruled it a homicide.

"The original medical examiner admits that she was not qualified to calculate force necessary from a ligature to produce strangulation,” said WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer.

Sheaffer says it's a circumstantial case on shaky ground and even an unlikely conviction would be overturned on appeal.

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"As soon as you had a conflicting opinion that this was a possible accident, as opposed to homicide, you have built in reasonable doubt. And you have multiple individuals who had access to the child. How are you going to prove the case?” he said.

The state attorney's office had no comment.

DePasquale will be in court Oct. 9 to see whether the judge thinks she should stand trial for murder.

She's been out of jail on bond ever since that second medical examiner decided the death could be an accident.