Woman pleads not guilty after dead baby found in freezer

DOTHAN, Ala. – A woman has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the death of her 6-month-old son, whose body was found last summer in an Alabama motel room freezer.

The Dothan Eagle reported Monday that 36-year-old Amanda Gail Oakes waived arraignment on charges of manslaughter and corpse abuse. Her trial is scheduled to start March 4.

Oakes was charged after the body of her baby, Curtis James Oakes, was discovered at a motel in Dothan. A man who had been travelling with Oakes, 28-year-old Carlton James Mathis of Gainesville, Georgia, was arrested on a murder warrant in June after the body was found.

Authorities say the baby died while being cared for by Mathis. Oakes says they placed her son’s body in the freezer when the smell became unbearable.