By WILLIAM KATES
Associated Press

SYRACUSE - A 49-year-old woman accused of drowning a 2-year-old boy while staying with his family last year will go on trial in March for the suffocation death of her own infant son in 1980.

Before Shirley Winters is tried for smothering five-month-old Ron Winters III, Onondaga County Judge Hon. Joseph Fahey will hold a hearing Dec. 6 to determine whether a statement Winters made to authorities can be used as evidence against her.

Winters was charged in September for a second time with second-degree murder in her son's death. Fahey dismissed the original charge against Winters in June after ruling that the grand jury hearing her case was tainted by improper testimony from the county medical examiner.

Winters was charged with murder after authorities exhumed the remains of the baby and two of his siblings. The baby's death was originally blamed on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

She was indicted after the medical examiner told the grand jury she believed the deaths of Winters' two other children in a 1979 Jefferson County house fire were homicides.

Defense attorney Ken Moynihan also challenged the latest indictment, but Fahey upheld the charge Wednesday and set trial for March 31.

Prosecutors have asked permission to use a statement Winters gave authorities on the day her children were exhumed. Winters gave the statement without having a lawyer, but prosecutors contend that she gave it freely, arguing that she was not in custody at the time and did not need legal representation.

Although Moynihan is questioning the admissibility of the statement, he said "it is not a confession of any type."

Winters was also charged in August with second-degree murder in St. Lawrence County for killing 2-year-old Ryan Rivers, whose body was found in a bathtub at his grandparent's home in November 2006. Winters was living with the family at the time.

Moynihan said he did not think the St. Lawrence County case would delay the trial in Onondaga County. St. Lawrence County Assistant Public Defender Brian Pilatzke, who is representing Winters in the drowning case, was not immediately available for comment.

Investigators renewed their interest in the deaths of the Winters children after the Rivers drowning. Winters remains under investigation in Jefferson County.

Since 1979, Winters has been linked to 17 fires at homes where she lived or the homes of family members. She was convicted of arson in 1997 and served eight years in state prison for burning down her late mother's home.