SIDS: OHIO: Varnell Carter charged with manslaughter

Mark Gokavi,  June 14, 2011


Varnell Carter told a Xenia police detective that he “screwed up” by putting his wife’s 4-month-old daughter on her stomach for a nap and that he is “just so sorry” that Reagan Merriweather died July 6, 2010.
But Carter, 26, also said during recorded interviews with Xenia police Det. Fred Meadows that he didn’t commit a crime. The video was part of several hours of testimony Tuesday in front of Greene County Common Pleas Court Judge Stephen A. Wolaver. Carter is on trial on charges of manslaughter and child endangering.
A jury of six women and six men heard from Greene Memorial Hospital emergency room physician Dr. C. Steven Dixon, who told defense attorney Jay A. Adams that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was the doctor’s initial diagnosis.
The infant’s pediatrician, Dr. Sami Muhtadi, testified that positional asphyxia — the ruling of Greene County Coroner Dr. Kevin L. Sharrett — often has “very similar findings“ as SIDS and that the two can be confused. All the medical personnel testified SIDS is an unexplained, evolving area of medicine.
The day’s last witness, Sharrett said the information he received from the autopsy, photos and investigators’ interviews led to his positional asphyxia ruling, “consistent with suffocation,” but that the manner of death was ruled as undetermined. Sharrett said coroners must choose among natural causes, homicide, suicide, accidental and undetermined.
Sharrett said that putting an infant face down in a nursing pillow on top of sheets and a comforter would “dramatically” increase the risk of breathing issues.
The trial continues this morning with the prosecutors’ final planned witness.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/crime/defendant-told-cop-i-screwed-up-by-putting-baby-on-stomach-1185339.html

SIDS: West Virginia: Leslie Erin Boggs

February 19, 2011

Leslie Erin Boggs was in custody on a $500,000 cash bond two days after being charged with child neglect resulting in death.

(CNN) -- More than eight months after claiming that her 3-month-old baby mysteriously died overnight, a West Virginia mother now stands accused of drunkenly falling on the child and smothering her to death.

Investigators said Friday that Leslie Erin Boggs' story has long seemed inconsistent with the medical examiner's report on the death of Raynna Rea Boggs in May. But they did not proceed with their case until her newlywed husband, Thomas Myers, gave a fuller account last month of what he said he saw the morning of the baby girl's death.
"She got wasted, she got drunk, she got high, and she fell asleep and rolled over on the child," Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Plant said Friday night on HLN's "Nancy Grace," summarizing authorities' belief of how the baby died.
As of Friday, Boggs was in custody on a $500,000 cash bond, two days after being charged with child neglect resulting in death.

The woman's attorney, Richard Holicker, released a statement emphasizing that the allegations against his client "are just that -- allegations."
"Ms. Boggs adamantly asserts her absolute innocence, and we wish the prosecuting attorney would try this case in court and not in the media," Holicker said.
Boggs claimed that she had fed and changed the baby at her South Charleston apartment, then came back to find the baby unresponsive after doing some cleaning.
The medical examiner determined that Raynna died of asphyxiation, also noting that part of her head appeared to be pushed in and her face was blue. Investigators said that these findings, including the baby's body temperature when seen by a coroner, didn't seem to jibe with Boggs' account, which suggested sudden infant death syndrome.
The case took a key turn when authorities decided to follow up with Myers after learning he was incarcerated for a probation violation, South Charleston police Detective A.R. Gordon said.
According to the criminal complaint that led to the charges Wednesday against Boggs, Myers told authorities that he and his then-girlfriend "had been drinking and using drugs the previous evening and earlier (the) morning" of the infant's death.
"When he woke up that morning, he observed the defendant 'passed out' on the floor," the complaint reads. "As he was walking around (Boggs') body, he observed Raynna's legs sticking out from underneath her ... The defendant's leg was over Raynna's body."
Myers said that he then took Boggs off the baby, who he noticed was blue with her head pushed in. He believed, right away, that Raynna was dead, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Myers claimed Boggs' mother gave her daughter gum at the hospital in "an attempt to conceal the odor of alcohol on her breath."
Plant, the prosecutor, said that going back to a previous witness is not unusual, especially when it's a family member, nor finding that their story changes.
Myers has since been released from jail.
"I believe that Mr. Myers knew that this was wrong that this happened," Gordon added. "He knew wrong was wrong, and the best thing to do was to relay the information to us."
What makes Myers' account relevant, said Plant, is that it is "consistent with the allegations in the complaint from the medical examiner's report."
"It's always good to have witness testimony corroborate the physical evidence," he said.
Appearing on a September airing of "Swift Justice Nancy Grace," Boggs acknowledged that she occasionally passed out -- in the company of others and "also alone."
"I'm dealing with my daughter's death," said Boggs, who appeared on the program to face off against Raynna's biological father and her ex-boyfriend, Eric Gillespie, for monetary claims. "I'm dealing with a lot of stuff."
Around the time that show aired, Boggs was arrested in West Virginia on charges of entering a vehicle, petty theft and possession of a controlled substance after allegedly stealing 38 suboxone pills from a black Jeep.
Shortly thereafter, on October 10, Boggs posted on her MySpace page that she was marrying Myers.
Plant said Friday that, if convicted on the child neglect resulting in death charge, Boggs would face between three and 15 years behind bars. But he didn't rule out more severe charges, especially if it was determined that the woman willfully and maliciously killed her baby.

"We're not stuck to this charge," he said. "Once I see the (final) report, we'll make a determination."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/18/west.virginia.mother.smothering/?hpt=T2

SIDS: Ohio:Overlying

Doug Staley  Feb 18, 2011

MASSILLON —

The death of a 6-month-old infant this week appears to have been accidental, according to authorities.
The infant, who was sleeping with his father, apparently died after his father rolled on top of him, according to Massillon police detective Bobby Grizzard. An official ruling is not expected until toxicology and microscopic tests are completed in a couple of weeks, according to the Stark County Coroner’s Office.
The infant was positioned between his parents, Grizzard said.
“They (parents) are saying the baby may have moved, which led to the father laying on the baby,” Grizzard said.
The infant was found unresponsive Tuesday after paramedics were dispatched . The boy was pronounced dead at 2:51 p.m. at Affinity Medical Center. An autopsy performed Wednesday by the Coroner’s Office did not reveal any signs of trauma.
The death is the second in the last six months in Massillon due to a child sleeping with their parents. A 26-day-old infant died Nov. 9 after paramedics were called to a residence, the Coroner’s Office reported. In that incident, a mother was holding her baby when she rolled over in bed, according to Grizzard. The death was ruled accidental.
The majority of infant deaths investigated by the Coroner’s Office are caused by parents sleeping with their children, according to an office spokeswoman. Last year, three infants died as a result of co-sleeping.
Since 2000, 48 sleep-related deaths have been reported in Stark. Most of the deaths were due to sudden infant death syndrome or asphyxia, according to the county health department. However, an unsafe sleeping environment could not be ruled out in some cases in which the manner of death could not be determined.
http://www.cantonrep.com/newsnow/x449516261/Authorities-say-infant-deaths-appears-accidental

SIDS: Nebraska: Lorenzo Guzman and Nicole Ramirez charged with manslaughter

 Bret Hayworth, February 11, 2011

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. -- An attorney for a man charged with manslaughter in the death of an infant who was found lifeless in a reclining chair told a judge today he will show the baby died of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.
At the same hearing in Dakota County District Court, an attorney for the baby's mother, also charged with manslaughter, said his client was not responsible for the death because she did not place the child in the chair.
Lorenzo Guzman, 35, and Nicole Ramirez, 24, appeared before Judge John Samson for a three-hour preliminary hearing in the case. Police say Guzman placed the baby, Abrieana Renee Mace, in a recliner and propped up a bottle so she could feed about 5 a.m. Aug. 17 and that no one checked on her for seven hours.
An autopsy report lists positional asphyxiation as the cause of death. The 11-week-old baby died in Guzman's South Sioux City home, where Ramirez and three of her children, including Abrieana, were staying.
Guzman and Ramirez had originally been charged with child abuse resulting in death, a felony that carries a penalty of 20 years to life in prison. Last month, those charges were reduced to manslaughter, which is punishable by one to 20 years in prison.
South Sioux City Police Officer Shawn Jensen was the first officer to respond to the 12:35 p.m. Aug. 17 call, after Ramirez and Guzman reportedly awoke about 11:30 a.m., gave one of Ramirez's other children a haircut and, an hour later, found the baby dead in the chair. Jensen testified Friday that when he arrived, it was obvious Abreana had been dead for several hours.
He testified about a conversation between Guzman and an emergency responder at the scene, in which Guzman said the baby had been found face down in the chair.
Officer Andrew Backman questioned Guzman in the police station later that day and testified Friday that Guzman told him Ramirez had gone to sleep at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 16 and that he went to sleep about 12:30 a.m. At that time, Abrieana had been strapped in a car seat in their bedroom, and when Guzman awoke briefly at 5 a.m., he took the baby into the living room, placed her in the recliner, propped her up and left a bottle nearby.
Backman said Guzman told of waking at 9 a.m. when one of Ramirez's children stirred in the living room. Guzman reportedly went into the room, saw nothing wrong with Abrieana, and returned to sleep in the bedroom until he and Ramirez awoke at 11:30 a.m. Their first action reportedly was to give a haircut to one of the two older children, and they found Abrieana unresponsive around 12:30 p.m.
"(Guzman) said (Ramirez) was a very heavy sleeper, she never got up at night," Backman said. "That was his responsibility, when they were at his house," Backman said.
Abrieana's father, Vernon Mace, lives in Wagner, S.D., and Ramirez periodically had her children live with Mace and then Guzman, with whom she had an off-and-on relationship, Backman said.
Backman said Ramirez told him during interrogation that Abrieana had a habit of stopping breathing, but he said a talk with the clinic doctor in Wagner revealed that the physician had never been told that.
Dakota County Public Defender John Loos Jr., who represents Ramirez, asked Backman if both people in the house should have been expected to check on the child.
"It would seem to me the burden would fall on the mother," Backman responded.
Nebraska State Patrol officer Doug Johnson, who responded with Backman on that August day, said the baby had been left alone from roughly 5 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. "The child had been left unattended for seven hours," Johnson said.
Loos asked whether a parent should check hourly on infants under their care. Johnson said he and his wife checked on their own children frequently, before Samson halted that line of questioning.
Later, as he ended his remarks for the day, Loos said that although he respected the testimony of the policemen, "I don't believe it is a mother's job ... to get up every time, every night."
Johnson testified that he'd investigated roughly eight cases of people dying of positional asphyxiation but that this was the first involving a child. He said people died by that means after being intoxicated or with other complicating factors.
Under questioning by special prosecutor Sandra Allen of the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, Johnson said Dr. Thomas Bennett, a former Iowa state medical examiner, also filed a report on the baby's death. Bennett agreed with the coroner's conclusion, Johnson said.
"This was not a SIDS death, this was definitely asphyxiation," Johnson, said summarizing Bennett's report.
An attorney for Guzman, Jerry Soucie, of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy in Lincoln, said he will use the testimony of a Colorado doctor to show the baby died of SIDS.
Attorneys for both defendants have until March 1 to file briefs in the case.
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_9771454c-3643-11e0-964d-001cc4c002e0.html

SIDS: Idaho: Wyatt Greenough charged with infant's death by manslaughter

 KRISTIN RODINE - krodine@idahostatesman.com 01/25/11

Meadow Nickel turned 3 months old the night her mother went out for the first time since the baby was born.
But when Betsy Nickel came home — about 8 a.m. last Feb.6 — the infant was not in her basket, but in bed with Wyatt Greenough, Meadow’s father.
When Nickel could not find the child among the covers on the bed, she said, she panicked and started screaming. But even that did not immediately rouse Greenough, Nickel testified in court Monday.
“I was patting everywhere, digging in the blankets. I finally flopped his arm over and I saw … I saw … I found her,” Nickel said, sobbing.
The baby was covered by a thick white comforter, with Greenough’s arm on top of her and her faced pressed up against and under him.
“She was still pink, so I thought she was alive, but when I looked in her eyes they were just blue and glossy,” Nickel said. “She was just gone.”
Greenough, 26, sat solemnly in a blue suit, blinking often as testimony began in his involuntary manslaughter trial.
Deputy Canyon County Prosecutor Ty Ketlinski said Greenough acted recklessly when he drank heavily and then took the child into the bed with him — after telling Nickel he would not drink while caring for their daughter.
The little girl’s autopsy report tells a different story, defense attorney Lary Sisson said during his opening argument. He told the jury the doctor who examined the child will testify that Meadow’s death was caused either by sudden infant death syndrome or by “positional asphyxia” — a condition caused when an infant sleeps in an unsafe position, cutting off breathing.
“Was it a tragic event or an unfortunate accident?” Sisson said. “It was not involuntary manslaughter.”
Greenough’s mother, Carrie Robertson, talked to the Statesman during a break in the prosecution’s case, saying the baby’s death was a tragedy for all involved and that it is unfair to place the blame on Greenough.
“It was an accident,” she said. “They were both so in love with that baby. It was a horrible accident.”
Robertson had watched the baby earlier in the night, until Greenough got home from his late shift at work. He was not drunk, she said.
But Ketlinski, the prosecutor, said Greenough had stopped and had two or three beers with a friend after work, then picked up an 18-pack of Coors Light on the way home.
“When police came the next morning, all but seven of those beers had been consumed,” he said.
Nickel said Greenough had gotten drunk and rolled onto the baby in November, when Meadow was a newborn. After that, Nickel had demanded that he not drink when he was taking care of the child. She pressed that point with Greenough, she said, before she left to go out with a friend and stay overnight with her sister in Boise.
Ketlinski told the jury that Greenough is not a monster, and he is remorseful.
“But he was reckless, and that recklessness is a crime,” Ketlinski said. “That crime is involuntary manslaughter.”

WHAT DO EXPERTS SAY ABOUT BRINGING AN INFANT INTO BED WITH YOU?

Co-sleeping, in which a baby sleeps in same bed as his or her parents, has been the subject of much debate in the United States.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have said that infants should not co-sleep with their parents because it is not safe.
Still, many parents do it because they say it helps with nursing and allows baby and mom to get better sleep.
If you have decided to co-sleep with your infant, here are do’s and don’ts from the March of Dimes:
DO’S:
• Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep. Babies who sleep on their backs have less risk of SIDS than babies who sleep on their tummies or sides.
• Always leave your child’s head uncovered while sleeping.
• Be sure there are no openings in the bed’s headboard or footboard where your baby’s head could get trapped.
• Remove cords and drapes from nearby windows.
• Remove strings or ties from pajamas — yours and the baby’s.
• Remove soft bedding.
• Place a tight-fitting fitted sheet on the mattress.
• Make sure that there are no spaces between the bed and the wall or furniture.
• Make sure your mattress fits snugly in the bed frame.
• Make sure there is nothing near the bed that could suffocate or strangle the baby.
Don’ts
• Never put a baby to sleep in an adult bed alone.
• Never place your baby on a waterbed, sofa, soft mattress or other very soft surface.
• Never place pillows, comforters, quilts or other soft/plush items on top of or under your baby.
• Never sleep with your baby if you smoke, have been drinking, or have used medicines or drugs that make it hard for you to wake up.
• Never overdress your baby for sleep or overheat the room.
Sources: kidshealth.org and marchofdimes.com

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447
 http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/01/25/1501019/manslaughter-sids-or-tragic-accident.html#ixzz1CQuFp67S

SIDS: Washington: Mother Says Nojo Original Baby Sling Killed Her Daughter

By JUNE WILLIAMS 

TACOMA (CN) - A mother claims the poorly designed Nojo Original Baby Sling suffocated her 3-month old daughter. The grieving mom says Crown Crafts Infant Products dba Noel Johanna failed to warn consumers not to use the sling with infants younger than 4 months old, as it can cause positional asphyxiation.
     "The 'Nojo - The Original Baby Sling' is unreasonably dangerous as designed and can result in suffocation/asphyxiation because babies are contained entirely within the pouch of a sling with their face, including nose and mouth, pressed against the adult's body, impeding the airway," according to the federal complaint. "The sling can also place the infant in a 'C' position, or a chin-to-chest position, which can also impede the airway. When an infant is in the chin-to-chest position, suffocation and death can occur within minutes."
     Ann Heneghan says she was carrying her daughter in the sling while shopping and in less than 30 minutes, "she observed that her 3-month-old otherwise healthy baby was limp, pale, and not breathing. She observed blood-tinged mucous coming from Cathleen's nostril," the complaint states.
     "Ms. Heneghan began shouting for someone to call 9-1-1 and to help her with her baby. She carried Cathleen back into the store and commenced CPR with the assistance of a bystander. EMS units arrived within three (3) minutes and took over resuscitation efforts. Cathleen's heartbeat and breathing was restored and she was transported by ambulance to Children's Mary Bridge Hospital in Tacoma, Washington.
     "Cathleen was hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit for four days where she remained unresponsive and in a coma. According to medical records, evaluation of Cathleen's condition revealed that she was brain dead and had developed severe cerebral edema, seizures, aspiration pneumonitis, and an upper GI bleed, all associated with diffuse anoxic and ischemic injury. She was also found to have no cranial nerve function and no demonstrated respiratory efforts. Cathleen remained on advanced life support systems during the course of her hospitalization.
     "On October 27, 2004, Ms. Heneghan made the difficult decision to remove Cathleen from artificial life support. Cathleen died in her mother's arms at 11:50 a.m. that day."
     Heneghan says she was originally told that her daughter had died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
     But "On March 12, 2010, Ms. Heneghan was contacted by the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and was told that they were going to be issuing a warning regarding the dangers associated with the type of sling that Cathleen died in. Ms. Heneghan contacted the medical examiner who had conducted the original investigation and discovered for the first time that Cathleen's death was the result of positional asphyxiation - not Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as she had been told previously," the complaint states.
     "On March 12, 2010 the CPSC released a warning stating that 'infant slings can pose two different types of suffocation hazards to babies. In the first few months of life, babies cannot control their heads because of weak neck muscles. The sling's fabric can press against an infant's nose and mouth, blocking the baby's breathing and rapidly suffocating a baby within a minute or two. Additionally, where a sling keeps the infant in a curled position bending the chin towards the chest, the airways can be restricted, limiting the oxygen supply. The baby will not be able to cry for help and can slowly suffocate,'" according to the complaint.
     "Subsequent investigation revealed that the 'Nojo - The Original Baby Sling' is a dangerous sling because it allows babies to retreat into a curved/'C' shaped position where his/her head can be pressed against the mother's body causing positional asphyxiation. Investigation also revealed that the product did not contain any warnings or instructions telling Ms. Heneghan how to use the sling safely, that she should not use this type of sling with infants under four months old, and that the baby should be worn tight to the mother's body with the head out of the sling at all times. The dangers due to the design and lack of warnings associated with the 'Nojo - The Original Baby Sling' were unknown to Ms. Heneghan and were the result of Cathleen Delia Ross' tragic and unnecessary death," the complaint states
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/12/22/32804.htm