Mental Evaluation of Mother Accused of Setting Baby on Fire Due to State This Week

The mental evaluation of a 22-year-old South Jersey woman who allegedly set her newborn baby on fire in the middle of the road last year is due to the state later this week, the Burlington County Times reports.

Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, of Pemberton, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of first-degree murder and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Under state law, to pleading insanity is an affirmative defense in which the defense must prove that “the defendant was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality of the act, or, if the defendant did know it, that he/she did not know that what he/she was doing was wrong.”

Dorvilier faces prospect of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

She is being held on $500,000 bail at the Gerard L. Gormley Justice Facility in Mays Landing, according to the report. That is where female defendants in Burlington County are imprisoned.

Her next court date is set for Feb. 8, according to the report.

Officers from the Pemberton Township Police Department were dispatched to Simontown Road just before 11 p.m. on Jan. 16 of last year after a resident called to report the fire in the road.

Upon arrival, police found Dorvilier being held on the ground by resident David Joseph, who had confronted her about the fire, authorities said.

Dorvilier allegedly had a can of WD-40 lubricating spray and a lighter in her jacket pocket. A green Land Rover was also parked on the scene, with the keys outside the SUV, sitting on the ground.

Joseph told police he had a problem with illegal dumping in the area recently, and initially thought this might be related.

When he confronted Dorvilier, she said her dog had pooped in her car and she was burning it.

After Joseph and his wife protested, Dorvilier promised to put the fire out. When she doused the fire with water, the baby began to cry.

Dorvilier attempted to run, and Joseph caught her and held her down while his wife called the police.

The umbilical cord and placenta were still attached to the baby.

The baby, later named Angel, was airlifted to Saint Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia and was reported to be alive and breathing at that time. The baby died approximately two hours later.

According to Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood, the baby died of smoke inhalation.

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