ALBANY — Arrested on Dec. 19 for the murder of her 5-year-old cousin, Tiffany VanAlstyne, now 20, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree manslaughter, all felonies.

When Albany County Court Judge Peter Lynch asked both sides whether they approved of video and audio being recorded by the press, James Milstein, Albany County’s public defender, objected.

“It would have the potential to contaminate any jury pool,” he said, leading to an impartial jury and unfair trial. VanAlstyne stood next to him wearing a red jumpsuit with her hands shackled in front of her.

“Well, I disagree with that,” Lynch responded, permitting the reporters and photographers occupying the jury box to turn on their cameras. Shannon Sarfoh, bureau chief of the Special Victims Unit, prosecuting the case for the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, did not object.

On Feb. 6, a grand jury indicted VanAlstyne for second-degree murder on two different parts of the charge under Penal Law. The first, subdivision 1, recognizes two forms of defense, including the “influence of extreme emotional disturbance…to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the defendant’s situation under the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be.”

The second count of second-degree murder is for subdivision four, involving a “depraved indifference to human life,” and recklessly causing the death of someone younger than age 11.

The third count, for first-degree manslaughter, is for subdivision four, recklessly causing the death of anyone younger than age 11, with the intent of causing physical injury.

At 19 years old, VanAlstyne was looking after her young relatives — Kenneth White and his twin, both 5, and a 4-year-old sister — with whom she lived in a trailer at 994 Thacher Park Road in Knox, when, police say, she strangled the boy and caused blunt-force trauma to his head before dumping his body over a guardrail into a snowbank across the street.

VanAlstyne has been in Albany County’s jail for the month and a half before the indictment by a grand jury was announced by the Albany County District Attorney’s Office Friday afternoon. She faces up to life in prison as her sentence.

Several relatives have tried to visit and obtain custody of Kenneth White’s two young sisters who lived in the Knox trailer. People not close to the family have rallied around White's story to raise awareness of what they call cases of child abuse. Employees of the Albany County Sheriff's Office have set up a fund for the sisters.

VanAlstyne's mother, Brenda VanAlstyne, has tried unsuccessfully to get permission from an Albany County Family Court judge to visit White's two sisters, who lived in the trailer with her for less than a year. White's father was denied custody of the girls, but, along with their mother, who lives separately, is allowed to visit them.

At VanAlstyne’s arraignment before Judge Lynch Wednesday, Sarfoh said the district attorney’s office is ready for trial. Lynch said he was filling in for Judge Stephen Herrick, who will preside over the case in the future. A conference with Herrick and the attorneys was scheduled for Feb. 18, with pre-trial motions due by March 30.