The important question is not why Nicole Beecroft stabbed her newborn baby more than 100 times, but whether the child was already dead when it happened, defense attorney Christine Funk told a Washington County judge Monday.

There is no question that Beecroft, who was 17 at the time, gave birth alone in the basement of her Oakdale home in April 2007, stabbed the baby and put the body in a trash can outside the house, Funk said during her opening remarks in Beecroft's second murder trial.

"The state wants you to focus on why Nicole would stab the baby if she were already dead. A better question is why would somebody stab a baby?" Funk said. "But that's not an issue in this trial. The issue is whether the state can prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether the defendant's actions caused the death of that infant."

Nicole was indicted by a grand jury in 2007 with one count of first-degree premeditated murder for the death of her baby.

She was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Last year, the conviction was overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court based on interference of prosecutors, which prevented the defense from calling expert witnesses, therefore violating Beecroft's rights of due process.

Beecroft's renewed murder trial began Monday morning and is being heard by Chief Judge John Hoffman. Last week, Beecroft waived her right to a jury trial.

Though she was a juvenile at the time of the baby's birth and death, Beecroft was tried as an adult in 2008. A request to move the case to juvenile court was denied in January. Beecroft is now 24.

Beecroft has maintained that the baby was stillborn.

But prosecutors contend the baby was born alive and Beecroft, who went to lengths to conceal her pregnancy, never had any intention of keeping the baby.

"She knew she was going to get rid of that child," Washington County prosecutor Siv Yurichuk said during her opening remarks. "On her way downstairs, she grabbed a steak knife and two scissors. She stabbed that baby 135 times. Over and over and over, until the baby was so fraught with wounds she bled to death."

Beecroft wrapped the baby in a towel and put her in a trash can. "Then she went to work ... like it was any other day," Yurichuk said.

Beecroft had told her best friend about the birth and where she put the baby. The friend's family called police with an anonymous tip. Police found the body, concealed in a trash bag, on April 11, 2007.

Yurichuk said the medical examiner who performed the autopsy determined the full-term baby was born alive and died from her wounds and that other expert witnesses will be called to testify to the same. Yurichuk urged Judge Hoffman to keep in mind: "Why would somebody stab a baby that's already dead?"

Following opening statements, prosecutors began calling their witnesses. During the testimony of one Oakdale police officer, a recording was played of Beecroft's first police interview April 10, 2007 -- before the infant's body had been found.

Beecroft could be heard telling the interviewing officers that the baby wasn't breathing, "so I went into panic mode." She said she lay with the baby for some time, waiting for her to cry, but that the infant didn't move or make any sound. She never mentioned the stabbing.

"What were you going to do if the baby was breathing?" one interviewer asked her.

"Bring her to the hospital," Beecroft responded.

She said her mother and her mother's boyfriend were home at the time but that she didn't tell them what was going on.

One of the interviewing officers pressed Beecroft. "How can you throw your child in the trash? Whether your mom approves or not ... this baby had a chance at living," he said.

Kari Beecroft, who died last month, can be heard in the police interview telling her daughter she is baffled by the accusations and by the lack of emotion.

"You're talking about this like it's nothing. That's your baby," Kari Beecroft said, audibly upset. "I can't even understand how you could do that, no matter how mad I'd be."

"I didn't know what to do with it," Nicole Beecroft said.

"It's not an 'it,' " her mother said. "It's a person."

Prosecutors have said they will finish presenting their case next week.
