BAY MINETTE — The second capital murder trial of an Orange Beach woman who  allegedly drowned her infant son in February 2005 abruptly ended Monday with a manslaughter plea, after a pathological review concluded there was no conclusive evidence that the baby was born alive.

Marsha Colby accepted the 15-year plea agreement as jury selection began in Bay Minette.

District Attorney Judy Newcomb said Monday a change in forensic evidence and state Supreme Court findings noted inconsistencies in the evidence.

“The defense got a new scientist to review the findings,” Newcomb said. “The chief medical examiner for the state also was asked to review the findings, and he did.”

Three state pathologists reviewed evidence and determined the cause of death was undetermined. Newcomb said the manslaughter offer was based on Colby recklessly causing the death of the infant.

The Alabama Supreme Court   ordered the retrial of Colby in October after concluding errors were made in the jury selection process, and raising concerns about the autopsy.

Defense attorney John Beck said he expected Colby to be released within a month, based on “good time” and other sentence-determining factors.

“She was looking at life without parole,” Beck said. “The first conviction was based on one forensic pathologist for the state who has been discredited.

“She is happy. It’s been a long road  for her and her family.”

Colby was convicted of capital murder in 2006 and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, after the state withdrew a death penalty request, according to court documents.

The Supreme Court ruling stated Colby had to use at least three peremptory challenges to remove jurors the Court of Criminal Appeals held should have been removed for cause. The chosen panel included “jurors who would likely have been the subject of peremptory challenge had such challenges been available to Colby.”

Justices stated the seated jury included jurors who knew witnesses for the state, jurors who expressed strong support for the death penalty and “jurors who felt it was the defense counsel’s job to prove the defendant’s innocence.”

The number of peremptory challenges varies based on the size of the jury pool.

In late January 2004, Colby was pregnant with her seventh child. She and her husband, Glenn Brewer,  were living in a pair of campers after being displaced by Hurricane Ivan, according to court records.

Colby began “leaking fluid” Jan. 28, 2004, while with her mother, who urged her to seek medical attention. Colby refused.

In early February 2004, a friend expressed concerns that Colby was no longer pregnant, but no one had seen the baby.

Orange Beach police and a state Department of Human Resources staffer went to Colby’s residence. Initially, Colby declined discussion of the baby, then said she had a miscarriage. A short time later, she said she had given the baby up for adoption. She could not produce paperwork to confirm either scenario.

Authorities found what appeared to be blood in the trailer’s bathroom, then noticed a post planted in the yard surrounded by fresh dirt.

As the officer began digging, Colby said the baby was buried there, court records state.

In a statement, Colby said she was taking a bath and “felt a little pressure and I delivered a stillborn baby.” She said the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck and that the baby was “discolored.”

After giving birth, she said she wrapped the baby and left it in the trailer while she returned to the camper and got in bed with her husband. She apparently buried the baby later.

Colby said she buried the baby about four feet deep in the back of a garden. She said she used the post to mark the grave’s location.

The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences was called to the scene to exhume the body. The baby was wrapped in a towel, which was wrapped in a black garbage bag inside a comforter.

The body was lying in cold saltwater due to the high water table, and there were no visible signs of trauma, court records indicate.

An autopsy listed drowning as the cause of death. The autopsy report said the child had been born alive.

Colby appealed her conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeals, alleging, among other things, that the state failed to present sufficient evidence that the baby had been born alive, or that she had intentionally killed the baby.