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PITTSBURGH, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A western Pennsylvania funeral director Thursday withdrew his guilty plea to storing fetuses and the bodies of newborn babies in his garage.
Robert Winston Jr. of McKeesport was scheduled to be sentenced by a Pittsburgh judge, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. But instead, he decided to take his chances at trial.
Under Pennsylvania law, defendants who plead guilty can change their minds until sentencing.
Winston admitted in June that he mishandled the body of a newborn infant identified only as Jane Doe No. 6. Charges involving the remains of 18 babies and more than 300 fetuses were dismissed in return for the guilty plea.
The judge said he found the case troubling.
"I'm concerned that I don't know what went on here," Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning told lawyers.
Winston, who is no longer in business, had a contract between 1999 and 2002 to take fetuses and the bodies of deceased newborn babies from Magee Hospital in Oakland to a crematorium.
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