Sioux Falls woman charged with killing newborn baby challenging DNA evidence collected

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – Prosecutors are asking a judge to deny a defense request to exclude DNA evidence used to charge a Sioux Falls woman with killing her newborn nearly 40 years ago.

Attorneys for Theresa Bentaas (pictured) want to suppress DNA evidence obtained from her trash because investigators didn’t have a search warrant.

Prosecutors in Minnehaha County argue there is no “blanket rule” from the U.S. and South Dakota Supreme Courts on giving trash constitutional protection against unreasonable searches.

The 58-year-old Bentaas is accused of abandoning her infant in a cornfield ditch in Sioux Falls in 1981.

The baby died of exposure.