NORTHAMPTON – Jennifer Paluseo, 21, of Plymouth, a former University of Massachusetts student, pled guilty to manslaughter at Hampshire Superior Court yesterday.

Paluseo also pled guilty to removing or conveying a body. She previously had pleaded innocent.

Paluseo’s dead infant was found at James Hall Dormitory at UMass, on May 2, 2002. Paluseo faces up to 12 years in state prison or two and a half years in the house of corrections, according to Judge Judd J. Carhart, superior court justice. Paluseo is being held on $25,000 bail.

Her defense lawyers were seeking to suppress statements allegedly given under duress during interrogation, making the conducted search of her dorm room illegal, according to court papers filed at the Hampshire Superior Court on Dec. 16, 2002.

Now that Paluseo has changed her plea, the motion to suppress her statements will be discarded.

Paluseo’s defense lawyers filed an Alford plea, which means that the person, while in a state of confusion, remembered being present at the time of the crime, but not committing it.

“I remember taking the things from the bathroom and putting them in the trash,” said Paluseo during her court hearing yesterday.

Judge Carhart then asked her if she remembered putting the baby in the trash. Paluseo denied this action.

The prosecutor, Renee Steese, requested a recess because the Alford plea was not negotiated before yesterday’s court date. After lawyers and Paluseo returned from the recess, Paluseo stated that she did remember giving birth to the baby and putting it in a trash bag.

Paluseo cried as the prosecutor explained the background of the case to the judge.

According to the court papers, Paluseo, who was 19-years-old at the time, was not presented with a Miranda waiver form to sign, nor was there evidence of a recording or written version of an interview that took place between Paluseo and the police.

Paluseo’s lawyers, Terry Nagel and Frederic Bartmon of Amherst, argued that failure to record the interrogation and the use of involuntary statements by Paluseo was unconstitutional.

In his affidavit, a written declaration made under oath before an authorized officer, Dr. Jay Holtzman, the psychiatrist who examined Paluseo the day after the interrogation, determined that she had been in a dissociated state and therefore was not stable to talk about her situation with police.

According to an affidavit signed by State Trooper Sgt. Robin Whitney, Paluseo allegedly acknowledged her rights and was willing to talk to police.

The affidavit states that Paluseo started the birth control pill in September, but by December she thought it was more than likely she was pregnant.

The affidavit also states that Paluseo allegedly said that when she went home to Plymouth for Christmas, her mother, Elizabeth Paluseo, and Jennifer’s boyfriend, William Barrus, asked her if she was pregnant. She denied to both her mother and her boyfriend that it was a possibility.

Paluseo said that she told no one that she was pregnant and denied the pregnancy if anyone asked, including her friends at school. Her roommate, Loukisha Hyman, asked Paluseo if she was pregnant in February, and Paluseo denied it, according to the court papers.

On May 1, 2002, Paluseo woke up with cramps, but didn’t think that the cramps could be related to having a baby. She said that around 7 p.m., she gathered three towels and her basket of toiletries to take a shower.

While in the shower, Paluseo allegedly said that she started bleeding and felt as if something was pushing down on her abdominal area. She then allegedly sat down on the floor with the water still running and “everything came out,” according to the affidavit.

Allegedly, Paluseo then wrapped her self in one towel and wrapped “whatever was on the floor of the shower,” in another towel. She went back to her room, put everything in a trash bag, emailed her sister and friend, ate a bowl of cereal and then took the trash to the trash room. She said she took out the trash because her sister was coming to visit on the following Friday. The thought of calling for help never occurred to her, according to the affidavit.

According to the search warrant, police seized Paluseo’s computer, along with items that had evidence of blood, including a towel, two pairs of underwear, trash bags and a pair of scissors.

Yesterday, the prosecutor said that Paluseo stated that if she had scissors, they would be in or on her desk, and that she would have used scissors to cut the cord but didn’t remember cutting it.

The affidavit, signed by Paluseo states, “I do not remember much of what I was interviewed about, although I know it had something to do with what had happened to me the night before.”

The next court date is scheduled for March 31, 2004 at the Franklin Superior Court in Greenfield.