Sentenced: Abducted Baby, Found Near General Electric Campus, Dies at Hospital

[Sugar Cookie]

An eleven-month-old who was the subject of an Amber Alert has died.

Halo Branton was found by the General Electric Campus and was rushed to the hospital, where she later died.

An Amber alert was issued early Sunday morning for the child. Halo had last been seen the night before at 9;15 p.m.

Police were looking for a woman possibly wearing black pants and black sneakers, who was walking around with a baby under a blanket after 9 p.m. that night.

Source Article

Police: 11-month-old dies; death now criminal investigation (press conference video)

SCHENECTADY — Missing 11-month-old Halo Branton has died and her death is now under criminal investigation, police said late Sunday afternoon.

www.dailygazette.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The mother of baby Halo Branton is now charged with murder in her death.

Persia Nelson, 24, was originally charged with second-degree manslaughter Monday morning, but that charge was being upgraded to second-degree murder, depraved indifference to human life, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said during an afternoon press conference.

The upgraded charge comes after an autopsy on the child showed Halo died of exposure, hypothermia, Carney said.

Halo, who would have been 11 months old on Thursday, had been dropped into a utility tunnel on the General Electric campus, which dropped about eight feet to the bottom, where she was in standing water that came up to her chest, Carney said.

“The baby did not drown, the baby was in the water which came up to her chest and around her head, but not her face,” the district attorney said.

Nelson was found in a GE heated building, Carney said. She was arraigned Monday morning and ordered held on $500,000 bail.

"The allegations are that she dropped that child down pipe-access — a hole in the ground, essentially — on the GE plant grounds," prosecutor Matthew Nobles told the court at Nelson's arraignment. "That was approximately 10-feet deep and left the child there essentially to die, without seeking any help whatsoever."

Nobles' comments in court mirrored the charging document in Nelson's case.

The charge is based on the investigation and “video footage,” according to the allegations.

Charge against Persia Nelson, Halo Branton's mother, upgraded to murder (w/ press conference)

Persia Nelson, 24, was originally charged with second-degree manslaughter in Halo Branton's death. But that charge was being upgraded to second-degree murder, depraved indifference to human life, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said in an afternoon press conference.

www.dailygazette.com

Prosecutor Michael Nobles asked Judge Carl Falotico to order Nelson be held without bail, saying she is a flight risk because she has no connections to the area.

Nobles told the judge that Nelson had only been in the Schenectady area since November, and before that had temporarily stayed in a shelter in Albany County.


Nelson is originally from Columbia County, and has another child in that county, Nobles said.

Nelson has only limited contact with her other child, who she does not have custody of, Nobles said.

Charge against Persia Nelson, Halo Branton's mother, upgraded to murder (w/ press conference)

Persia Nelson, 24, was originally charged with second-degree manslaughter in Halo Branton's death. But that charge was being upgraded to second-degree murder, depraved indifference to human life, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said in an afternoon press conference.

www.dailygazette.com

 

[GoneWest]

That’s fucking felony first degree murder with torture enhancement.

 

[lovesaidfuckyes]

Omg I wanna fight this lady

 

[Angiebla]

OMG she is so precious.

Am I right in thinking she was taken from a foster family? Why take the baby just to kill them?

 

[Satanica]

I guess they feel the f they can’t have the baby, no one can.

 

[Kitsune Faye]

I guess they feel the f they can’t have the baby, no one can.

Exactly. My son’s donor is one of them spiteful motherfuckers who thinks like this. If he can’t have me, he made sure no one else would. If he can’t raise Jacob (he’s unfit to), no one else will either.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Halo

 

[Kitsune Faye]

View attachment 108835View attachment 108836
View attachment 108834
Halo

Doll baby, like my own son.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Upset over an argument with her boyfriend, an angry Persia Nelson grabbed her nearly 11-month-old daughter, swaddled the child in a blanket and stormed off from a Campbell Avenue home into the dark of night on a cold, rainy day last year, Christina Tremante-Pelham told jurors Wednesday during opening statements in Nelson's murder and manslaughter trial inside a Schenectady County courtroom.

The chief homicide prosecutor contends that Nelson is captured on surveillance cameras clutching the child while walking through the streets in the Bellevue neighborhood before eventually making her way into a heavily wooded area and emerging onto the General Electric campus.

While Tremante-Pelham and defense attorney Mark Sacco both agree that Nelson had earlier drank alcohol and smoked marijuana at a party, they offered vastly different versions of the sequence of events on the night of March 9, 2024 and the defendant's state of mind at the time she allegedly left baby Halo Branton on the GE campus and walked off.

"There's no lack of awareness here, a lack of caring, but no lack of awareness," said Tremante-Pelham. "This is not some horrific accident after a night of drinking, it was a deliberate act, it was her decision, it was her baby, her in that black hole in the middle of the night in frigid temperatures."

Saccco stressed in his opening statements that his client "loved her baby with every ounce, every fiber of her being" and would never have abandoned the infant.

"We believe what the evidence will show is that she did everything conceivable to save her child and she was incapable of having a depraved mind set, incapable," he said.

The 25-year-old Nelson is also charged with first-degree manslaughter and misdemeanor child endangerment. She has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. If convicted, Nelson faces a possible penalty of 25 years to life in prison for the top murder count.

Sacco conceded that the baby was put in a structure on the GE site.

"I believe that piece of evidence will show you that you see a person essentially walking, and maybe a slight delay in movement, but to the extent that you can see, any kind of placement or anything like that, that's now what the evidence is showing you," he added. "So, at that point, the mind of my client is in question, that's the moment the baby was set down, now you have to look at the evidence, where was the baby set down?"

Tremante-Pelham asserted that the defendant is seen on the video dropping Halo into a utility pipe access tunnel area, or a "dark hole," with the baby face up in standing water before she then walked off toward a lighted area about 400 feet away.

She contends that was the moment Nelson left her child for dead and walked off to the heated structure, where she was found by a GE security staffer about 20 minutes later.

It would be some 12 hours later, during a frantic search involving multiple law enforcement agencies, that a police officer peered into what the prosecutor described as a "box-like structure" with a hole in front of it.

"What he saw were the blue eyes of a baby looking back at him," she said, adding that he dove into the hole, called for backup, and pulled Halo out. "This case is about choices, a mother's choices, deliberate acts, and then the abandonment of her own utterly dependant infant."

Paramedics on the scene tried desperately to resuscitate the child, who wasn't breathing and had ice and frost on her face.


Halo was later transported to Ellis Hospital, where doctors and nurses continued life-saving efforts for 45 minutes.

Despite their best efforts, the girl was pronounced dead on the afternoon of March 10, 2024. She died of hypothermia.

"What these people didn't know is that her mother had sealed her fate when she put her in that black hole and walked away," said Tremante-Pelham.

Before Halo was found, the prosecutor argued that an otherwise coherent Nelson, who was talking with police about a variety of topics, as well as some of the hardships she endured to get on the GE campus, had a "complete loss of memory" when she asked about her daughter's whereabouts.

Not only that, but she seemed more concerned about her problems and plight than the fact that her child was missing, a pattern that continued even when she was transported to the police station, said the prosecutor.

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MSN

 

[Busy Bee]

If she was trying to find her child why didn’t she tell the police were she was right away?? Instead of telling them about Her problems?? If she was lucid enough that she could speak with the police she was not too intoxicated to tell them were her daughter was at! No, she didn’t love her child, she dropped her down a hole, in freezing temperatures!

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Persia Nelson was found guilty of the top count of the indictment of second-degree murder as well as manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

Nelson allegedly left her 11-month-old daughter Halo Branton down an 8-foot drainage pipe in a utility shed on the General Electric campus in March 2024. The baby was in freezing cold water and died from hypothermia and exposure.

The trial lasted almost three weeks, and the jury deliberated for a little more than 4 hours.

Deliberations began around 10 a.m. Less than 30 minutes later, the forewoman sent a note to Judge Matthew Sypniewski asking for clarification on the top count of second-degree murder by depraved indifference.

Sypniewski explained that a person is guilty of depraved indifference murder when that person recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to others if the defendant creates that risk and is unaware of it.

The judge also told the jurors that they could consider whether the defendant’s crime was affected by intoxicants to such a degree that she was incapable of forming the mental state of depraved indifference to human life.

Defense attorney Mark Sacco has said that his client was intoxicated the night this happened and was trying to find a safe shelter for her baby.

Jury convicts Schenectady woman of murder for baby’s death

A jury has convicted a Schenectady woman of murder for leaving her infant down a drainage pipe at the GE campus last year. Persia Nelson was found guilty of the top count of the indictment of second-degree murder as well as manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

wnyt.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Persia Nelson was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Nelson was found guilty in October 2025 on the charges of murder, manslaughter, and endangering the welfare of a child. Her trial lasted over two weeks.

Nelson spoke through tears during her sentencing. She apologized to her son, her family, Halo’s father, and her daughter. She said she was sorry for her self-centeredness and not being a better mother. She also said she accepted responsibility and would feel the weight of her actions for the rest of her life.

Nelson was sentenced to 25 year to life on the murder charge, five to 15 years on the manslaughter charge, and one year for the endangerment charge. The sentences will run concurrent to each other.

https://www.news10.com/news/schenectady-county/schenectady-mom-sentenced-to-25-years-in-death-of-10-month-old/

Longer video

 

[Sugar Cookie]

She will not even serve 25 years before she is released

 

[thatsmallgrl]

Gonna channel my inner Jack and say, Persia is a really stupid name.

Also I despise concurrent sentences.