Emily Portellos deliberately hid her pregnancy and then killed her newborn in order to avoid the stigma of being an unwed mother, or she is a naive woman with a learning disability who didn’t know she was pregnant and didn’t intend to hurt her daughter.
Those contrasting portraits were sketched out by lawyers Thursday as the trial of Portellos, of Plymouth Township, began in Judge Dan Ryan’s courtroom in Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit.
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Weingarden said the trial would show Portellos had a baby in 2006, which she gave up for adoption, and that she concealed a 2008 pregnancy and smothered the infant after giving birth at home Oct. 15, 2008.
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The defendant’s mother was the first prosecution witness Thursday. She said she disapproved of her daughter’s relationship with her boyfriend, Robert Murphy, “because he was not a Greek boy. He was not our religion.”
“Did you ever ask her to hide their relationship?” Weingarden asked.
“Yes,” answered Mary Portellos.
Mary Portellos had trouble answering many questions; at one point, she teared up, and her daughter did, too.
“I’m very nervous. This is my baby. I’m sorry,” she said.
Dr. Shari Maxwell, an obstetrician and gynecologist who operated on Portellos, testified she was alarmed by the patient’s blood loss at the hospital, but that Portellos was uncooperative during an examination and had to be put under anesthesia in order to be examined completely, something she was also reluctant to do.
“It seemed like a long time, because I’m looking at the amount of blood that was being lost,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell said Portellos seemed more concerned about her family, especially her brother, rather than her own health. She described stitching up lacerations to Portellos that resulted from the apparent birth.
Also testifying Thursday was a defense witness, Mary Ann Wright, a specialist in learning disabilities who oversaw Portellos’ high school program. Wright’s testimony was taken out of order due to a scheduled vacation.
“Emily had what I call a processing problem. When she was given information she might have to have it repeated to her, or she might have to have some time to respond with an answer,” she said.
Wright said a job as a child-care worker would have suited Portellos, but that a job as a tax adviser, for which Portellos was preparing, according to Weingarden, would have been too complex.
