By Giff Johnson
For Variety

MAJURO- A teenager charged with first-degree murder for the death of her baby whose body was thrown in a garbage dumpster here late last year will go to trial this week on the heels of two important court rulings that favor her defense.
In a related criminal case, a police captain charged with sexually abusing the teenage girl last year while she was in jail awaiting her trial will also go to trial in early May.
High Court Chief Justice Carl Ingram ruled that all statements made by the 17-year-old girl to police after her arrest “cannot be used at trial for any purpose.” According to police as reported in the local press at the time, the teenager confessed to killing her baby.
In another ruling for the defense, Ingram rejected a motion from the Attorney General’s Office that sought to have the teenager stand trial as an adult.
The AGO did not provide enough evidence of the alleged youthful offender’s “mental maturity” to treat her as an adult for trial, Ingram ruled.
Trying her as an adult would make her liable for the full penalty of these felony charges if she is found guilty; minors are subject to less severe sentencing and are also shielded from having their names used in the media.
Public Defender Lionel Aingimea, formerly a chief prosecutor for the central Pacific nation of Nauru, is representing the girl, who, as a minor, pleaded “not true” to the three charges of first-degree murder, second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.
Aingimea’s motion to the court to suppress his client’s earlier statements to police argued that juveniles must be treated differently from adults when it comes to questioning by police because they do not have the capacity of adults to understand the implications of what they say to the police.
He also argued that police did not follow constitutional and other requirements, including having a lawyer present, when they interrogated her.
Prosecutors did not object to Aingimea’s motion, so it was accepted by Ingram.
The teenager’s jury trial starts on Tuesday next week.
A trial has been set for May 8 for national police Capt. Heine Motodrik, who is charged with six criminal counts. Prosecutors said he sexually assaulted the teenage girl last year while she was in police custody awaiting her March 27 trial.
The sexual assault charges against Motodrik highlight the lack of a separate women’s facility at the main jail in Majuro, and the difficulty of incarcerating women in the Marshall Islands.
The teenager is being held in an office at the police station, which was vacated by police officers to make room to hold her. The police captain was suspended pending the outcome of his trial.
Motodrik pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexual assault and three counts of misconduct in a public office at a hearing late last week. He is charged with two counts of second degree sexual assault, and one count of fourth degree sexual assault.
Motodrik, who is represented by private attorney Philip Okney, asked for a jury trial on the two-second degree sexual assault charges, which are felony charges.