SBS: Florida: Marshall Cole sentenced

April 15 2011

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for shaking his infant son to death.
A Duval County judge sentenced 43-year-old Marshall Dale Cole IV on Friday. He was convicted in February of second-degree murder.
Authorities say 3-month-old Marcus was hospitalized in March 2009 and died a few days later.
A medical examiner's investigation showed the baby had been shaken, and an arrest report said Cole had been alone with the child for at least 30 minutes before he stopped breathing.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/85e0de550b3d41bca2f637ad5b7d3a42/FL--Jacksonville-Infant-Death/

SBS: Virginia: Trial delayed for Kathleen Ganiere, accused in death of foster child

 Credit: Va. Beach Police Dept.

Kathleen Ganiere

 Feb 7

VIRGINIA BEACH -- Jury selection was scheduled Monday in the trial of a Va. Beach woman accused of killing her foster child, but instead, the trial was delayed.  

Kathleen Ganiere is facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of 9-month-old Braxton M. Taylor.
Authorities say the little boy died from shaken baby syndrome a year ago today, a day after being rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
A date is being worked out for her trial, perhaps in April, Commonwealth's Attorney spokeswoman Macie Pridgen told WVEC.com.
Ganiere has been free on bond awaiting trial on three charges -- second degree murder, child cruelty/neglect/abuse and child cruelty/neglect/abuse/reckless.
"If convicted of all three charges, she faces between eight years and 55 years in prison," Pridgen noted.
http://www.wvec.com/news/Trial-begins-for-Va-Beach-woman-accused-in-death-of-foster-child--115476844.html

SBS: Doubt over 'shaken baby' theory

Lucy Cockcroft 15 Feb 2009

Two British pathologists have found that a combination of injuries used to diagnose abuse, known as the "triad", can happen naturally.

Dr Irene Scheimberg, from London's Bart's Hospital, and Dr Marta Cohen, from Sheffield Children's Hospital, warn that bleeding on the brain and retinas, swelling of the brain and oxygen deficiency do not only occur through vigorous shaking.

Their discoveries could have a dramatic effect on future child abuse trials and child protection hearings.

Dr Scheimberg said: "When there is no evidence of physical abuse, apart from the haemorrhaging, we may be sending to jail parents who lost their children through no fault of their own.

"As scientists it is our duty to be cautious when we see the triad and to take each case on its merits. We owe it to children and their families."

The study, published in the journal of Paediatric Developmental Pathology, found that the symptoms of shaken baby syndrome can happen in babies before they are taken home from hospital.

The authors looked at 25 babies who had died shortly before delivery and 30 newborns who had haemorrhages and found similar damage to the brains of all the babies.
The study concluded that the symptoms are common in young babies and could be caused by a traumatic birth or other conditions.
Dr Scheimberg and Dr Cohen believe that what they have found means police and lawyers will need more evidence than bleeding in the brain to prove that a baby has suffered child abuse.
Dr Scheimberg said: "We now know that mothers who have babies through normal vaginal delivery can have a child with a subdural haemorrhage and also retinal bleeding.
"We also know that many of these bleeds resolve themselves – with no outward sign of damage in the first few weeks of life and these children grow up to live a normal life.
"The other group are those children who present with signs of shaken baby syndrome whose bleeding has continued and got worse. These are the children who the courts suspect have been harmed by their parents."
The evidence could now be used in a string of appeals, including the case of childminder Keran Henderson, who is serving three years for the manslaughter of 11-month-old Maeve Sheppard.
Medical experts argued that Maeve's injuries indicated that she had been violently shaken.
But Henderson, of Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, said the baby had a fit while she was changing her nappy.
Her lawyer, leading child abuse expert Bill Bache, said he was "absolutely sure" the research will be used in appeal cases.
"It is very likely we will use it in Keran Henderson's appeal," he added.
Mr Bache said the evidence may also be used in at least four further cases.
The "triad" of symptoms first came to public attention in 1998 in the US trial of British au pair Louise Woodward, who was found guilty of the second-degree murder of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen in October 1997. She was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years to life in prison.
Her conviction was then reduced to involuntary manslaughter. Her sentence was also reduced to time served on remand, 279 days, and she was freed.
Around 200 cases of shaken baby syndrome are diagnosed in Britain every year and many accused of abuse strenuously deny any wrongdoing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4632198/Doubt-over-shaken-baby-theory-that-has-sent-dozens-of-parents-to-prison.html

SIDS: Virginia: Nikko Lemar King

16 January, 2011
A 21-year-old man is charged with the murder in the Sunday morning death of a child in Gretna.
Nikko Lemar King is in jail charged with second degree murder of a 7-month-old baby, according to a press release from Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor.
At about 6: 15 pm Sunday, police were sent after receipt of a 911 call of shots fired in a residence. When deputies arrived, they found the injured baby who was pronounced dead by medical staff, Taylor said.
The suspect was arrested without incident Sunday afternoon, Taylor said. In addition to the murder charge, was King charged with possession of a firearm after being convicted of a crime. He remains in the Pittsylvania County jail under no bond, Taylor said.
King will be his first Court appearce Tuesday.
While the investigation into the death going on, said Taylor seems that the incident was “domestic in nature.” There were no other injuries.
The body will be transported to the medical examiner Office in Roanoke to the official cause of death.
Virginia State police and Pittsylvania County, Virginia Commonwealth Attorney helps with the research.
http://www.direct-2you.com/roanokerec/archives/7514

SBS: Louisiana: Ashley Rene Reifer charged in baby’s death

 

James Minton/The Advocate

Baker police, including Lt. Glenn Daniel, background, lead Baker resident Ashley René Reifer, 22, to a patrol car Friday for booking at Parish Prison in the Oct. 28 death of a 2-month-old boy at the day care center where Reifer worked. Police Chief Mike Knaps said an autopsy revealed that the infant died of shaken baby syndrome.

BAKER — Police arrested a former day-care worker Friday in the Oct. 28 death of a 2-month-old baby in her care, Police Chief Mike Knaps said.

Knaps said an autopsy revealed that infant Brody Vance Hopper died as a result of traumatic brain injury, also referred to as “shaken baby syndrome.”
Detectives booked Ashley René Reifer, 22, 958 Florida St., Baker, into Parish Prison on Friday night on one count each of second-degree murder and cruelty to a juvenile.
The baby was born Aug. 25.
Lt. James Broussard said detectives received autopsy results in the case on Monday.
The investigation revealed that the infant was in the sole care of Reifer on Oct. 28, from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., when the boy’s father arrived to pick him up from Baker’s Busy Bee Learning Center, 3615 Groom Road, Broussard said.
Knaps said police were dispatched to the day-care center after the father took his son in an infant carrier to his vehicle and noticed that the boy was non-responsive.
Officers found no signs of trauma on the child’s body, Knaps said, but the child was taken to Lane Regional Medical Center in Zachary, where he was pronounced dead.
During the investigation, detectives interviewed everyone who was working in the facility, but Reifer, on the advice of her attorney, declined to be interviewed a second time earlier this week, Knaps said.
A baby has weak neck muscles and a large, heavy head, and shaking makes the brain bounce back and forth inside the skull, according to a National Institutes of Health website.
The brain’s movement inside the skull causes bruising, swelling and bleeding, but the injuries may not be immediately noticeable, the NIH fact sheet says.
Broussard said the child’s  parents were notified of the impending arrest Friday afternoon.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/113121389.html

SIDS: Virginia: Robin Imani Varner

January 4, 2011
Chesterfield Police have arrested and charged Robin Imani Varner with second degree murder for the death of her five month-old daughter.
Rescuers were called to the home. Neighbors say the police and ambulance crews were there for hours.
Initially, police told CBS 6 that they believed the baby died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS.
However, search warrants obtained by CBS 6 contradict those initial claims.
According to the documents the child was unresponsive when rescuers arrived.
Rescuers started CPR and transported the child to Chippenham hospital where the baby was pronounced dead.
Police were also informed by ER doctors that, “there was an unusual amount of blood associated with this infant and it was not consistent with a Sudden Infant Death case.”
The paperwork also details what investigators saw at the Rockridge home. It says the residence was "disheveled" and "unkept". They say they found drugs and alcohol in the room next door and that the infant was sleeping on a mattress on the floor with nothing more than pillows to keep the child from rolling off.
They also observed a bed frame over the baby's sleep space and believed it could easily fall on the child if moved.
There are no names mentioned in the warrant.
Varner is currently being held without bond at the Chesterfield County Jail.

http://www.wtvr.com/news/wtvr-police-arrest-chesterfield-mot-01042011,0,282953.story

SIDS: North Carolina: Heuser

By James Halpin
Staff writer

 Dec 07, 2010

 

 

A Spring Lake woman pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the death of her 11-month-old daughter, whose skeletal remains were discovered stuffed in a diaper box in the attic of the family home, according to the Harnett County district attorney.
Johni Michelle Heuser, 28, was sentenced to between 11 and 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering Harmony Jade Creech in 2007.
Though the cause of the child's death remains undetermined, prosecutors contended there was evidence of starvation.
Heuser had been charged with first-degree murder, but in entering the plea Monday, she removed the possibility of the death penalty.
Prosecutors say Heuser killed the girl between Aug. 31, 2007, and Sept. 30, 2007, but no one found out about it until Oct. 19, 2007, when a Harnett County Sheriff's Office deputy was called to the 1600 block of Ray Road in Spring Lake to a report of a missing child, District Attorney Susan Doyle said in a statement.
Heuser told the deputy that she had last seen the child the night before and that she discovered the child was missing from her crib about 11 a.m. A window had been opened and a screen removed, she told the officer.
Deputies, joined by the FBI, began searching for the child and eventually found the remains in a diaper box in the attic, Doyle said.
After being confronted by the remains, Heuser told investigators she had found the child looking white and not breathing in her crib one morning around the end of August or beginning of September, she said. Heuser claimed she had wanted to call police but was afraid she would be blamed for the child's death and that her other children would be taken, she said.
Heuser told investigators she wanted to bury the child but she couldn't bring herself to do it, Doyle said. Instead, Heuser wrapped the child's body in plastic and put it in a diaper box, which was shelved in the attic for at least two weeks.
Heuser told investigators that she opened the window the night before the child's father, Army Sgt. Ronald Earl Creech II, returned home from an Iraq deployment so it would appear the girl had been abducted, Doyle said.
Dr. Ann Ross, an anthropologist at N.C. State University, examined the remains and concluded that she could not determine the cause of death but that the probable cause was chronic starvation.
Dr. Deborah Radisch, the state's chief medical examiner, concluded in an examination report that "no trauma was identified and that the findings were inconsistent with regard to the presence of malnutrition/starvation."
Radisch concluded that there was no way to determine whether the child had died of a natural cause, such as sudden infant death syndrome, or whether the child had been smothered to death. The cause of death remained "undetermined," although Radisch noted that the child had a history of medical neglect.
Doyle said the state accepted Heuser's guilty plea to second-degree murder after consulting with Creech because the cause of death was undetermined and would have been "highly contested" in a jury trial.
Heuser was sentenced to a minimum of 141 months and a maximum of 179 months in prison.
"This plea to second-degree murder reinforces this office's record of continued resolve to punish those convicted of violent crimes," Doyle said.

Staff writer James Halpin can be contacted at halpinj@fayobserver.com or 486-3509.

SBS: Trial in Newfoundland, Canada

A doctor testifying during a Newfoundland second-degree murder trial said yesterday that the baby boy who died may have been shaken.
Dr. Dorothy Bautista, a pediatric ophthalmologist, was testifying in the trial of Jeffery Isaac Tippett in provincial court in Corner Brook. Tippett was charged in the 2007 death of 11-month-old Tameron Rose of Corner Brook.
Bautista, who examined Rose's eyes at the Janeway Children's Hospital, said that she found retinal hemorrhages in both of the child's eyes.
Bautista also testified that her recommendation was to investigate the possibility the child had been shaken.
She said the severity of the injuries were consistent with a being shaken, especially in the absence of no obvious trauma to the outside of the child's body.
Court has also heard testimony that revealed the child's autopsy showed he had a skull fracture.
She said she had seen similar injuries in a child who had fallen from a third-storey balcony in her past clinical experience.
Under cross-examination, Bautista told defence lawyer Keir O'Flaherty that she later learned Tameron Rose had, in fact, suffered a skull fracture, which was not discovered until his autopsy.
O'Flaherty asked Bautista if she had been aware, at the time of her examination, that Tippett's partner - Tanya Tulk, who was caring for Rose with Tippett on Jan. 30, 2007 - had told police the child had banged his head on a crib earlier in the day. Bautista said she wasn't.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/1231222

SIDS: Canada, Alberta: Probe into baby's 2004 death leads to further charge against Calgary mom

By Jason van Rassel, Calgary Herald August 28, 2010
Probe into baby's 2004 death leads to further charge against Calgary mom
Stacey Joy Bourdeaux accused of killing Sean Ronald Fewer in 2004


Stacey Joy Bourdeaux, 33, is charged with one count of second-degree murder in the 2004 death of her infant son, Sean Ronald Fewer. She has also been charged with one count of attempted murder, choking with intent and failing to provide necessities of life, relating to an incident in May 2010 involving another child.
When 10-month-old Sean Ronald Fewer died in 2004, authorities blamed natural causes and closed the case.
Six years later, they're calling it a homicide.
Calgary police revealed Friday they have charged Sean's mother, Stacey Joy Bourdeaux, with second-degree murder after re-examining the infant's death and determining he had been smothered.
The new investigation was sparked after police charged Bourdeaux, 33, with trying to kill her five-year-old son inside their Glenbrook townhouse three months ago.
Sean's killing would likely have gone undetected if it wasn't for the new allegations against his mother, homicide investigators said.
"There would have been nothing to draw police attention to the case," Staff Sgt. Rick Tuza said.
"The flags started to go up and we had to take another look at that 2004 case."
The decision was prompted by an incident May 27, when Bourdeaux arrived at Alberta Children's Hospital with her five-year-old son in apparent medical distress.
The child was "having problems breathing and struggling to stand up," Tuza said.
"Officials noted the symptoms were consistent with trauma rather than an illness."
Four days later, on June 1, police charged Bourdeaux with attempted murder, choking with intent and failing to provide the necessities of life.
Police are withholding the boy's name to protect his identity.
There was conflicting information about the boy's current condition, but sources said he will suffer from lasting injuries as a result of the assault.
The father of both boys, Ted Fewer, died three weeks earlier, on May 4, when he was electrocuted by an overhead power line near Strathmore.
Fewer, 48, and Bourdeaux were estranged at the time, sources said.
As investigators probed Bourdeaux's background, they discovered Sean's death on Dec. 27, 2004.
Police said Bourdeaux had called 911 to her home in the 4900 block of 35th Ave. S.W., where paramedics found Sean in a crib, not breathing. He died in hospital a short time later.
The initial investigation by police and the medical examiner at that time turned up no evidence of foul play, Tuza said.
"Based on information available at that time, the child's death was determined to be of natural causes and no criminal investigation was launched," Tuza said.
It was the right decision at the time, Tuza stressed, based on all the evidence available to authorities.
In the authoritative policing textbook, "Practical Homicide Investigation," retired New York police commander Vernon Geberth described the difficulty of detecting smothering deaths.
"Investigators should realize that fatal violence may be inflicted without any external signs of trauma," he wrote. "In any number of circumstances an injury may not be readily observed, such as . . . an asphyxiation where the victim has had a pillow held over the nose and mouth."
Although the medical examiner's office wouldn't comment specifically on the homicide case involving Sean Fewer, an official said determining the cause of a sudden infant death can be challenging.
"Even with the best scene investigation and autopsy, it can be difficult to determine cause of death," said Dr. Sam Andrews, deputy chief medical examiner for southern Alberta.
In trying to determine the cause of death, the medical examiner looks at the scene of the death, the medical history, autopsy results and several related tests -- including toxicology, blood cultures and microscopic tissue samples.
It's usually only after all those steps don't yield a definite cause of death that the medical examiner will classify it as sudden infant death syndrome," said Andrews.
"A SIDS diagnosis is an undetermined death. Really, we're admitting we don't know what caused the death," he said.
When police reinvestigated Sean's death in June, new information spared them from having to exhume the child's body, said Tuza.
"We interviewed the mother and she co-operated with our investigation," he said.
Bourdeaux appeared in provincial court Friday morning on the second-degree murder charge. She remains in custody.
Sean's death raises the number of homicides recorded in 2004 to 17.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Probe+into+baby+2004+death+leads+further+charge+against+Calgary/3450781/story.html#ixzz0ysQFHbSo

SBS: Winston-Salem: 15 years in jail in the shaking death of a 22-month-old baby

DAVIDSON COUNTY -- Travis Christopher Lemmond, 20, was sentenced Wednesday to 12 to 15 years in jail in the shaking death of a 22-month-old baby.
Lemmons pleaded guilty in July to a second-degree murder charge, avoiding a first-degree murder charge and child abuse charge.
About 50 people showed up for the hearing Wednesday afternoon, many becoming emotional as testimony was heard from prosecution and defense witnesses.
A state medical examiner's report was read that indicated the baby, Lily Grace Crowell, died from blunt head trauma as a result of child abuse.
Lemmond offered his own apology during the hearing.
"I am very sorry. I made some horrible choices that night. I loved Lilly with all of my heart," he said.
The stepfather of the baby's mother, who initially supported Lemmond, also took the stand for the prosecution, saying the reason he originally offered his support was based on a lie.
Lily's mother and Lemmond have remained together, family members said.
http://www.wxii12.com/news/24843883/detail.html