SBS: North Carolina: Cheryl Alston trial

BETH VELLIQUETTE bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632

HILLSBOROUGH – After calling two doctors and a biomechanical engineer who questioned the theory that shaking a baby can cause traumatic brain injury, the defense rested its case Friday in the trial of Cheryl McAdoo Alston.
The state began its rebuttal evidence Friday morning, and it is expected that closing arguments will begin early next week.
Alston is facing charges in connection with injuries to a 5-month-old baby that was in her care in Chapel Hill on May 1, 2009. The state contends that Alston shook or otherwise injured the baby, who suffered serious brain injuries that have left him with permanent disabilities requiring him to undergo nearly constant therapy.
Assistant Public Defender Susan Seahorn began her defense of Alston by calling Alston to the stand. Alston adamantly denied hurting the baby in any way, but during cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Lamar Proctor pointed out several inconsistencies in the story she told about what happened that day.
The prosecution focused on where the baby was just before Alston claims she noticed something was wrong with him.
During questioning by investigators, which the jurors saw on videotape, Alston insisted that she had put the baby in a bassinette in a room for his afternoon nap and when he woke up, he was cheerful and happy.
Alston said she changed his soiled diaper and was washing her hands when she realized something was wrong with the baby and he began having a seizure. She was on the phone with the 911 operator when the father arrived that afternoon to pick his son up.
On the videotape, however, after the investigator told her about evidence that called into question her story about where the baby had been sleeping, she then admitted the baby had been in the car seat before she changed his diaper.
The investigator suggested that she had been keeping the baby in the car seat, which is against day care regulations, because she had previously injured the baby and was keeping a close watch on him by carrying him around in the car seat while she went about her other business.
Seahorn, however, in her cross-examinations of the state’s witnesses, which included the baby’s father, focused on inconsistencies in their statements, including a radiologist who changed his report just before the trial.
Seahorn’s expert witnesses testified that in the last decade, some doctors have begun to question whether the theory of shaken baby syndrome is correct. Treating doctors have diagnosed the syndrome based on injuries they’ve seen on babies’ brains, and then investigators, armed with that knowledge, have gone looking for the person who most likely shook the baby and charged that person with a crime even though there was no other evidence other than the doctor’s diagnosis that the baby had been shaken.
Seahorn’s theory of the case is that the treating doctors don’t really know what caused the injury on the baby’s brain. She presented one witness, a biomechanical engineer who conducted tests on a doll at his home, who contended that shaking a baby does not produce enough force to cause those types of injuries.
During the trial, Proctor and Seahorn have periodically sparred angrily with each other, raising their voices and jumping up out of their seats to interrupt the other, both in front of the jury and outside the jury’s presence.
Each has offered multiple objections to the other’s evidence and witnesses forcing Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan to repeatedly send the jury back to the jury room so he could hear their arguments outside of the jury’s presence.

: The Herald-Sun - Defense claims shaken baby syndrome theory is wrong

SBS: North Carolina: Tierra Smith: From life support to high school graduation

Chantee Lans : June 7 2011

 Asheboro, NC -- Thousands of high school students across the Piedmont Triad will walk across the stage in June.

Many are thankful to be able to start the next chapter of their lives by going to college.

One student who WFMY News 2 talked to said she's just happy to be alive.

Tierra Smith, 18, of Asheboro, has survived brain damage. She was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome when she was 11-months-old. After eight days on life support, doctors took her off the machines and prepared her mother for the worse, but Smith was a fighter.

Her biological father was convicted for child abuse. Now, 17 years after coming off of life support and in a coma, Smith will graduate Thursday from Southwestern Randolph High School.

Her mother Sharon Smith said it's a moment she wasn't sure if she would ever see.

"She's not even supposed to be here, she's not even supposed to be able to walk and talk and she's going to graduate," her mother described in amazement. "It's a little bit of peace in my heart that she can walk across that stage."

"I thank God when He put her in that coma and he let her come out and took her off life support, I believe he left her with what she's supposed to have," said Smith.

Tierra Smith plans to enroll at Randolph Community College in the fall to study nursing.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/article/178417/57/Shaken-Baby-Survivor-Set-To-Graduate-High-Schoo

SBS: North Carolina: Christopher Durant charged with murder

GREG ARGOS  April 1, 2011

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The family and friends of the man accused of killing his 4-month-old boy say they're shocked that 33-year-old Christopher Durant is being charged with murder.
"Chris is a wonderful person," said his sister Angela Durant.  "He comes from a great family, a Christian family. He's a great father for all of his kids."
Angela and four of Durant's friends attended his first court appearance where the judge informed him of his charges and his next court dates.
"It's very hard to see him [incarcerated]," Angela said between tears. "We're here for him."
Officers arrested Durant at his home on Ventura Way Thursday morning. He is charged him with murdering his 4-month-old baby. The young boy was rushed to Presbyterian Hospital Thursday night where he died from traumatic head injuries. Hospital workers say it appears the boy was abused and might have died from shaken baby syndrome.
"[Shaken baby syndrome] causes severe brain damage and death as you know," said Brett Loftis, the executive director of Council for Children's Rights, a child advocacy group.
Loftis says as a new parent, Durant should have been required to learn about the dangers of shaking his child, even before leaving the hospital.
"Parents are now mandated to get [shaken baby syndrome training] at the hospital when they have a baby. So this family should have gotten that information with a DVD and everything," he explained.
Investigators say Durant apparently didn't follow that advice. Now his 4-month-old is dead, and Durant's sister is left defending her brother.
"I just have to pray and our family will continue to pray for him," she said.
Durant is scheduled to appear in court for a bond hearing on April 11. His probable cause hearing is set for April 18.
 http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Family-defends-father-accused-of-killing-4-month-old-son-119087554.html

SBS: North Carolina: Jeremiah Seckman pleads guilty to felony child abuse

By Beth Pleming · March 11, 2011 ·
26-year-old Waynesville man whose infant daughter was blinded after he “burped” her will spend seven months in prison after pleading guilty Monday to felony child abuse.
Jeremiah Seckman pleaded guilty to felony child abuse inflicting serious physical injury before Superior Court Judge Gary Gavenus, who imposed a split sentence, including seven months active prison time and 36 months of probation.
Seckman said nothing in court Monday, but told authorities during early interviews he was awakened by the child several times during the night of Aug. 16, 2009, and that he burped the baby and went back to bed, prosecutor Jeff Jones told the court. The following morning, the child appeared to be having a seizure. Numerous medical professionals looked at the case and determined the baby’s injuries are consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
The child has been diagnosed as blind, Jones said, but appears to be showing signs of slight improvement.
Attorneys Jonathan Song and Pat Smathers represented Seckman in court Monday.
“This is a very tragic case for all involved, especially the child,” Song said. “(Seckman) hopes this will bring some closure to everyone involved.”
Prosecutors agreed to accept Seckman’s plea to a negotiated lower class felony child abuse charge primarily because it’s what her mother wants, Jones said. He had her confirm for the court that she is in agreement with the arrangement.
She believes it’s in the child’s best interest to take the plea so they can move on with their lives, he continued. Having a felony conviction will enable her to seek to terminate his parental rights, if she chooses to do so.
District Attorney Mike Bonfoey said refusing the plea offer wasn’t worth the risk of losing the case in a jury trial.
“We trust the jury’s decision in most cases, but there are some cases we don’t want to risk the jury doing what we think is the wrong thing to do,” he said. “We gave a lot of credence to the biological mother of this child. She knows her child probably better than anyone else, and probably knows the defendant better than anyone else.”
Furthermore, Jones said, signs that the child’s eyesight is improving, however slightly, poses a prosecutorial challenge to proving that the injuries are permanent, a necessary element for a conviction to the higher felony.
“In a case like this where a custodial parent knows her child best,” Jones said prosecutors believed this was the right thing to do. Counsel on both sides agreed “there was no intention to blind this child,” he said.
Special sentencing conditions that called for a split sentence were part of the plea deal. Gavenus suspended a 29- to 44 month sentence, placed Seckman on probation for three years. As a special condition of probation, he ordered Seckman to serve seven months active in the N.C. Department of Corrections. Upon his release, he will be placed under intensive supervision for six months, which will require him to complete community service and parenting classes. If he violates probation, the remaining portion of his sentence will be activated, minus 21 days for time served.
He is not to have any direct or indirect contact with his now 20-month old daughter or her mother, per the judge’s orders.
http://www.themountaineer.com/child-abuser-gets-seven-months-for-blinding-baby-5354

SBS: North Carolina: Amy Marie Sessoms charged

By Katie Jeffries February 18, 2011

WILSON COUNTY -- The Wilson County Sheriff Office is investigating a possible case of child abuse. Deputies say the child showed intentional signs of physical abuse and Shaken Baby Syndrome.
The child was transferred from the Wilson Medical Center to Pitt County Memorial Hospital and is said to be showing signs of improvement. Deputies are charging Amy Marie Sessoms with four counts of Felony Child Abuse Inflicting Serious Bodily Injury. The investigation is still on-going.

http://www.wcti12.com/news/26911780/detail.html

SIDS: North Carolina statistics

Sharon McBrayer Published: January 26, 2011

The leading cause of death for children in Catawba County is something going wrong before they are born.
That’s according to a 2009-10 annual report from the Catawba County Community Child Protection/Child Fatality Team. The team, made up of representatives from agencies and groups around the county, review each child death that occurs in the county.
The county had 23 child deaths last fiscal year. Ten children died from prenatal issues in Catawba, while five died from illness, four from motorcycle accidents, one from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and one from homicide.
Two others died from reasons not disclosed, according to the report. Any time a death is ruled undetermined, that decision is made by the medical examiner, said Jennifer McCracken, who serves on the team and is manager of Catawba County Public Health Services.
Of the cases of child death in the county, six had active child protective services involvement, according to information from the team.
The information says child protective services received 2,570 reports. Of the 1,604 cases accepted that met state criteria (3,660 children), 9 percent were reports of abuse and 91 percent were reports of neglect. Information from the report says 92 percent of the families served didn’t have a recurrence of child maltreatment within a 12-month period.
The most recurring issues found were prenatal care, SIDS, unsafe sleeping patterns, motor vehicle accidents, substance abuse and domestic violence issues, according to information supplied by John Eller, director of Catawba County Social Services. The report was presented recently to county commissioners.
Because of what the group learned through reviewing the deaths, it will focus on preventing distracted driving, co-sleeping and prenatal care, McCracken said.
Eller, who serves on the team, said the group also will focus on prevention of abuse and neglect.
“The importance of this team is to focus on child protection and also assess all childhood fatalities regardless of whether social services was involved,” Eller said. “This allows us to focus on this issue from a systemic and community perspective. That is the key.”
McCracken said the state sends the team birth and death records and then it pulls needed records from various agencies, including hospitals. The team, which has more than 20 members, then reviews the death to see what recommendations it can make to prevent the same kind of death from happening in the future, she said.
For instance, because the highest number of child deaths occurred because of prenatal issues, the team will work to get the word out that women need to immediately start care within the first trimester of pregnancy, McCracken said. The team also will focus on distracted driving, she said. 
Eller said, “No one agency, whether it be law enforcement, public health, the court system or social services can ensure the protection of children alone. It takes all of us, public agencies and citizens in the community alike. While North Carolina has made great strides in the protection of children, our resolve should be to strive for prevention through education, advocacy and proper intervention.”
The state just released its 2011 annual report to the Governor and the state General Assembly. Birth defects and other birth-related conditions were the top causes of child fatalities in 2009, with 755 deaths combined, according to the report. The state had a total of 1,486 child deaths in 2009, which was down from 1,573 in 2008, the report says.

http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2011/jan/26/panel-inadequate-prenatal-care-cause-most-child-de-ar-729188/

SIDS: North Carolina: Child death investigation training called basic

LISA HAMMERSLY - The Charlotte Observer

RALEIGH -- The state's top child advocacy task force will urge legislators to require all new police and deputies to take a course in child death investigation as part of basic training, the group voted Monday.
The task force also decided to support regionalizing the state's medical examiner system, which would place trained investigators across the state to respond to deaths. Because the effort could cost a lot, the group doesn't expect it to happen this year. The proposals were spurred by a Charlotte Observer series this year, "Cradle of Secrets," that looked at five years of sudden infant death syndrome cases in North Carolina. The series detailed that police frequently fail to investigate the deaths thoroughly, if at all.

The N.C. Child Fatality Task Force outlined its legislative agenda for 2011. The proposals involving child death scene investigation are designed to help gain "a standard for all death scene investigations," Brett Loftis of Charlotte, one task force committee chairman, said Monday. Currently, courses in proper child death investigation techniques are optional for North Carolina law enforcement officers.Many never take the courses; sometimes police don't respond at all to a child's unexplained death. North Carolina also doesn't have full-time trained investigators to send to most infant deaths, but a growing number of jurisdictions nationally do. Child death investigation is important, organizers say, because learning how children die can help the task force and other groups prevent deaths. Task force Chairman Tom Vitaglione said he was hopeful the N.C. Justice Academy, which trains all new officers, would agree to incorporate the plan. But if not, his group would push for a legislative order. The Charlotte Observer series also looked at the problem of safe-sleep education for parents. It found that at least two-thirds of babies who died of sudden infant death syndrome between 2004 and 2008 were sleeping in risky environments that suggested they could have suffocated. Those situations included sleeping with adults on beds or couches, sleeping among pillows and fluffy blankets or just sleeping on their stomachs. Studies have found that infants are more likely to die in these conditions. The Child Fatality Task Force also voted to ask for $150,000 for safe-sleep education in the coming legislative session, which begins in January. The amount is the same as the state spent last year, and that worried some committee members. The task force had talked this year about urging law enforcement statewide to complete optional checklists at child death scenes, which were designed to provide information about the child's sleep position and many other details. But the chief medical examiner's office decided this fall to stop using the Infant/Child Death Investigation Reports after learning they were public documents. The medical examiner's office had believed, and told law enforcement officers, that the information would be confidential. The task force looked at a wide range of proposals involving children's health. The group was created by statute and is among a few task forces that continue their work year after year.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/12/15/862842/panel-child-death-training-ought.html#ixzz18JC4EdTT

SBS: North Carolina: Derrick Michael Allen

 

Durham, N.C. — After a murder charge was dismissed against a Durham man who spent more than a decade behind bars, prosecutors and defense attorneys said Monday that more criminal cases could be thrown out.
A judge dismissed the case against Derrick Michael Allen after his lawyer argued that the State Bureau of Investigation had violated his constitutional rights by not sharinge everything it found in blood tests.
Allen, 31, was charged in 1998 in the death and sexual assault of a 2-year-old girl. An autopsy showed the girl died of shaken baby syndrome.
His case was among about 200 cases that an independent audit said were mishandled by the SBI. The audit revealed agents failed to report correct blood evidence in the cases.
Allen has maintained his innocence and was released on bond in September after spending more than a decade in prison.
Defense attorneys across the state are hopeful about the potential impact of the decision.
"That will encourage the judges to take a real hard look at cases that otherwise are just being passed through the system," defense lawyer Mike Unti said Monday.
Unti represents Johnny Daughtry, who was convicted in 1993 of killing his former girlfriend and sentenced to death. As in Derrick Allen's case, Unti said, the SBI's process in Daughtry's case was full of inconsistencies and discrepancies.
"There were more tests performed than was reported in the formal lab report," he said. "Only those that showed a positive result ended up in the testimony of the SBI agent at trial."
That agent was Duane Deaver, the analyst involved with many of the cases highlighted in the independent audit. Daughtry's case wasn't listed in the report.
"A lot of us have known all along that there are some real problems with the SBI and with the evidence that's being put on," defense lawyer Sharon Smith said.


Some prosecutors said they are concerned that emotions might play a role in certain cases.
"Decisions ought to be made based on the evidence and the proper criminal procedure, not whether or not someone is upset or doesn't like the way things went 10 or 15 years ago," Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said. "There may be other evidence that overshadows (the SBI analysis). It may not be necessary to use that piece of evidence."
Durham County Assistant District Attorney Mich Garrell tried that tack on Friday in Allen's case. He argued that two doctors found evidence of sexual assault on the child and that the SBI evidence had nothing to do with the homicide charge against Allen.
Daughtry's attorneys said they're prepared to head to federal court if the state court ruling does not go their way. They're also considering similar action for many of their other clients.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8771912/

SIDS: North Carolina: Richards

Apex, N.C. — At birth and even in death, tiny Autumn Naimi's health left many questions. The 3-month-old Jacksonville girl died at an Apex home in October 2009.
“She was 2 pounds, 10 ounces, and she was about 15 inches long. So, you could hold out your hand and her head would fit in the palm when she was born,” Autumn’s mother, Nicole Richards, said.
Autumn had a heart defect, a thyroid problem, and Richards says she was to be tested for a genetic growth disorder. Richards says life was touch-and-go for the little girl from day one.
“I had to be First Aid certified before she could leave the hospital. The doctor told me she could stop breathing at any time,” she said.
At 3 months old and weighing just 9 pounds, that's exactly what happened.
“She was asleep. I laid her down on her back,” Richards said.
But Apex police said they don't believe that. They arrested her at the funeral and charged her with involuntary manslaughter.
The woman Richards was staying with gave a conflicting statement saying Richards put the child on her stomach, which Richards would know was dangerous given the child’s weight and inability to hold up her head.
“We’re absolutely sure we did the right thing,” said Apex police Capt. Ann Stephens. “The D.A.’s office is sure they did the right thing. We would not charge a mother with the death of her child if we didn’t have compelling evidence to believe she was involved.”
Police say Richards also exchanged odd text messages with the woman on the way to the hospital. They would not make those records available.


Apex police say Richards later admitted to putting the child on her stomach, which Richards denies.
“The only time Autumn ever laid on her stomach was when I was right there with her,” Richards said.
An autopsy came back inconclusive with a possible cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Richards remained in jail for one year without ever being formally indicted by a grand jury. Then, prosecutors offered her a chance to walk free if she pleaded guilty, which she took.
“Being in jail is torture,” Richards said, explaining her decision to take the deal.
Richards also has cervical cancer and three other children whom she can't have custody of now. Still, it was a way out of jail, she said. Richards is now talking with an attorney to have the plea overturned.
“The child pretty much fought for her life every day. It was a constant battle that never ended until the day she died,” Richards said.
She knows her word against someone else's may end in the same result, but Richards said she wants someone to take another look at the autopsy, the health history and the text messages.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/wral_investigates/story/8732645/

SIDS: North Carolina: Lincoln sheriff reviewing case in baby's death

 

 Fred Clasen-Kelly: Dec. 07, 2010

On his first day in office Monday, Lincoln County Sheriff David Carpenter said he may reopen a 2008 child death case that involved a deputy who went to sleep instead of investigating the death of a 3-month-old baby.
Carpenter told the Observer he would soon meet with detectives to discuss how the office handled the investigation of Aidan Christopher Stewart, whose death was classified as a case of sudden infant death syndrome.
An Observer story published in September examined the boy's death and the department's investigation, raising questions about whether the death had been properly classified.
Lincoln County Deputy Don Mauldin told the Observer this summer that after Aidan died, he received an early-morning call from a medical examiner, informing him about the boy's death. Instead of heading to the baby sitter's house in Lincolnton where Aidan was found unresponsive, Mauldin acknowledged that he went back to bed.
It's unclear exactly when a deputy actually went to the house to investigate. The sheriff's department has said a deputy responded within 24 hours of receiving word from the medical examiner. But Aidan's family members say no one investigated for several days.
"It's something we will discuss because we want to make sure we do all the things we should," Carpenter said Monday. "We will get our heads together."
Carpenter has a personal connection to Aidan's death: The boy's grandmother is Carpenter's cousin.
Mauldin has insisted he did nothing wrong in his response to the death report because the medical examiner indicated that, although the child had a enlarged rectum, he did not believe any crime had been committed.
A forensic pathologist reported that he found no signs of abuse and ruled that Aidan had died from SIDS, a mysterious natural cause of death that kills babies under age 1.
Still, Aidan's family has raised questions about the findings.
Medical examiners, they note, are supposed to classify deaths as SIDS cases only after a thorough investigation of the death scene helps rule out other causes. Sheriff's officials have acknowledged that possible evidence in the room where Aidan was found may have been lost or disturbed by the time an investigator arrived at the house.
Family members suspect Aidan might have suffocated. He was discovered face down in an adult bed where he had been sleeping, raising the possibility that he could have suffocated from sleeping in an unsafe position or from his bedding.
Former Lincoln County Sheriff Tim Daugherty, who lost his bid for re-election in a May primary, has refused to answer questions about the investigation of Aidan's death.
The case briefly surfaced as an issue this fall during Carpenter's campaign for sheriff against Democrat Terry Burgin, who defeated the incumbent sheriff.
Carpenter, a Republican, and Burgin both said the sheriff's office mishandled the investigation. Both promised that, if elected, they would instruct their deputies to immediately go to all baby death scenes - which sometimes aren't properly investigated in part because police want to spare grieving parents additional pain.

 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/07/1892945/lincoln-sheriff-reviewing-case.html#ixzz17jFlVeDO

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: North Carolina: Moorehead

 A Charlotte man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to shaking a toddler to death last year.

Multiple media outlets reported that 20-year-old Randy Moorehead pleaded guilty Thursday to felony child abuse.
Police say he was baby-sitting 22-month-old Jalenthia Caldwell in November of 2009 when he shook the girl to try to make her stop crying.
The girl's mother, Lattayne Caldwell, was working when her daughter was shaken.
Moorehead was arrested several days later.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/8718999/

SIDS: Diagnosis of SIDS to be reviewed in North Carolina

 LISA HAMMERSLY - The Charlotte Observer

With the goal of educating families and saving babies' lives, North Carolina's new chief medical examiner is going to re-examine how the state diagnoses the unexpected deaths of sleeping infants.
Dr. Deborah Radisch says she plans to consult with path ologists statewide about how the medical-examiner system should handle the deaths that are now usually labeled sudden infant death syndrome.
She also wants to discuss a federal project under way in five states that aims to better investigate and diagnose these deaths. Those states are finding they record fewercases of SIDS, and more often label the deaths suffocation, cause unknown, neglect or even homicide. 

It's the first time since she took office in late June that Radisch has said she'll study SIDS deaths and related cases. She expects to start after she finishes hiring her staff.
The hope is to "establish consistency in diagnosis of all infant deaths that come through the medical examiner's system," Radisch said in an interview this week. "We want to continue to encourage families to be aware of preventive measures such as safe-sleep practices."
A Charlotte Observer series in June showed that N.C. medical examiners often have applied the SIDS ruling tobabies even when evidence showed they might have suffocated. They were often found sleeping in unsafe situations: with adults on beds or couches, for example, or facedown among pillows and fluffy blankets.
The investigation found that two-thirds of SIDS autopsies in North Carolina between 2004 and 2008 listed risks that raised the possibility of suffocation. The newspaper also found that law enforcement agencies were sometimes frustrated by the SIDS ruling if they thought the case involved neglect or - rarely - homicide. A SIDS ruling, they said, made successful prosecution of infant deaths almost impossible.
About 100 North Carolina infants each year die from SIDS. After years of research, those deaths are still a medical mystery. The label means that doctors don't know why a baby died and that the death was unpreventable. In North Carolina, SIDS also is considered a natural manner of death.
Advocates of safe-sleep practices for infants worry that SIDS diagnoses can be misleading. They want parents to understand that the risk of SIDS goes down when babies are put to sleep on their backs, alone in their cribs, without blankets or pillows that could suffocate them.
Georgia's medical-examiner system is taking part in the federal project coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Beoncia Loveless, a medical investigator with the Georgia system, says some people think of the SIDS label as merely an issue of semantics. "But it's important, if you're trying to get a message out to the community," she says. People once thought SIDS deaths "were unpreventable. But many appear to be preventable. It changes your message."
Although doctors still don't know what makes some infants vulnerable to dying in their sleep, they do know that sleep conditions are related, Loveless said. "The chances of that death go up significantly if the baby is in an unsafe environment."
Loveless said that in Georgia, very few sleep-related deaths are labeled SIDS. The term is reserved for a baby that dies unexpectedly in a safe-sleep situation.
Radisch says she won't start the process of examining infant deaths and other issues until she has a full staff, and she's still working to fill three open jobs forforensic pathologists in her Chapel Hill office. She says the pool of qualified applicants is small - about 40 graduate each year, and about 30 pass board examinations. Several states and jurisdictions are trying to hire.
The medical examiner's office is charged with investigating suspicious, unusual or unnatural deaths. North Carolina's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner oversees about 11,000 cases per year and about 4,500 autopsies.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/07/786502/diagnosis-of-sids-to-be-reviewed.html#ixzz15dTIqqsJ

SIDS: Nort Carolina, causes of death not pursued

Oct. 12, 2010

N.C. infants die every three to four days, on average, with little understanding of what killed them, you'd think the response would be a lot more urgent and considerably more dramatic.
A team of Observer reporters and editors this summer found that medical examiners often classify N.C. children's deaths as sudden infant death syndrome despite possible unsafe sleep conditions and other questions surrounding their deaths. That frequent diagnosis was likely masking the real cause: suffocation in pillows and blankets or even under an adult. The widespread use of that diagnosis slowed the education of parents about safe sleep habits. Law enforcement agents say a finding of SIDS prevents them from prosecuting neglect or other crimes.
The Observer series looked at 554 SIDS autopies over five years and found that authorities frequently fail to investigate the deaths thoroughly. Only about 25 babies, or five percent, were apparently sleeping safely, on their backs in their own cribs without dangerous bedding.
The diagnosis matters, because too-frequent SIDS findings make it harder to educate parents about safe sleeping. And that means we're not preventing as many deaths as we might.
The Observer series told the story of Autumn Brown, who died Nov. 20, 2007, at the age of 10 weeks in Alamance County. Her death was ruled SIDS, but her grandfather thinks she may have been smothered accidentally.
Makayla Peek was one month old when she died in Gaston County three years ago. Her death was also declared SIDS despite suspicions of foul play.
It's cases like these a legislative task force now hopes to minimize with changes in the state's response to child deaths.
Among the changes that the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force, chief medical examiner Deborah Radisch and others are examining:
All new law enforcement officers would be required to go through specialized training on child death scene investigations.
The state would hire trained investigators for regional offices, so all death scenes can be investigated properly.
Police would be urged to use a six-page, state-issued checklist at death scenes, which is now optional.
Those are important, and fine as far as they go. But why train only new law enforcement officers, and not all current ones? And task force co-chair Tom Vitaglione and N.C. Health Director Jeffrey Engel say state budget woes may delay the hiring of trained investigators for regional offices, something we obviously need. Also, why not require police officers to use the state-issued checklist, instead of just encouraging them to?
As long as meticulous investigations of child death scenes are optional, questions will loom about how N.C. infants are dying. And without information, parents and authorities can't address the problem.
We understand times are beyond tight for the state budget. We also know that taking basic steps that will help save babies' lives is money well spent.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/12/1755649/improvement-slowly-on-child-death.html#ixzz13HNkrgyt

SIDS: North Carolina Child Protection Team

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) - New Hanover County needs some serious help when it comes to how children are cared and provided for, according to the county's Community Child Protection Team, or CCPT.

In an annual report to county commissioners, presented Monday morning, CCPT identified five major issues with child services in the county.

Major problems noted by the team include, among others, a "dramatic decrease" in the quality of mental health services for children as well as the loss of preventative services in New Hanover County when it comes to child abuse and neglect.

The Community Child Protection Team was formed because of a state law established in 1991.  The CCPT is mandated to find and address problems with child services in the county. 

The team is made up of child advocates, citizens-at-large, and representatives from agencies including the Wilmington Police Department, New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, and the Department of Social Services (DSS).  The team, however, is not a division of DSS, but a separate community entity.

Each year, CCPT submits a report to the county commissioners. This year's report will be discussed at a pre-agenda meeting Thursday afternoon and again at the regular board meeting on Monday morning, September 20.

In the report, the CCPT pointed out five problems with New Hanover County's services for children.

First, the team stated the county does not have enough local therapeutic foster homes able to meet the needs of our children.  The lack of foster homes is also evident in regard to medically fragile kids.

Second, the members of the CCPT noted a "dramatic decrease" in the quality of mental health services for children.  They indicated a steady decrease in quality since 2004 and blame, in part, constant policy changes that result in inaccessible or inadequate services for children.

Next, the team addressed funding, saying New Hanover County doesn't have enough money to assist income-eligible families that may be struggling to stay employed or trying to complete education goals.

According to the report, there were 981 families on a waiting list for assistance in New Hanover County as of August 31, 2010.

Another issue tackled by the CCPT deals with child fatalities.  The team stated that too many child deaths are classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) by a medical examiner before a thorough investigation is conducted.

The CCPT said it has continually expressed serious concerns about the way child fatalities are handled, and it will continue to push for an autopsy to be performed on every child with a questionable or undetermined death.

Finally, the team expressed that it is "tremendously concerned" with the loss of preventative services in New Hanover County when it comes to child abuse and neglect.  The CCPT cited the economic downturn and rising poverty rates as reasons to expect abuse and neglect to get worse in New Hanover County and elsewhere.

"One more burden and it becomes too much," said CCPT Chairperson, Elizabeth Mandel. "It becomes just the catalyst for them to sink. We want to be there to support them. We can't help everybody. We can't do it alone."

The team is asking for more help from the county and especially the state.

"We're asking for your clout," a team member told the commissioners, who wanted firm numbers on what kind of financial help children's programs in the county need.

The team said it will work on getting solid figures for the commissioners, but in the meantime, asked for help in lobbying state lawmakers to stop making cuts to child services and start rebuilding an ailing system.

At the end of the report, the CCPT pointed out that North Carolina ranks 37th of 50 states when it comes to child well-being, according to the new Annie E. Casey Kids Count report.  North Carolina also ranks 36th out of 50 in a measure of children living in poverty.

"That's not a number that any of us should be proud of," said Mandel.

LaVaughn Nesmith, the director of New Hanover County's Department of Social Services agreed, and emphasized that something needs to be done quickly, with both poverty and child abuse on the rise.

"The end result is death," said Nesmith. "That is not acceptable. Not in a society that we live in."

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=13166722

SIDS: North Carolina improved statistics

North Carolina’s infant morality rate declined in 2009 to the lowest level on record.
The state Department of Health and Human Services said Friday there were 7.9 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2009, compared to 8.2 deaths the year before. The rate has improved by more than 35 percent since the late 1980s.
The mortality report showed the number of deaths attributed to sudden infant death syndrome fell from 136 children under 1 year old in 2008 to 98 last year. SIDS deaths went up sharply in 2008 but Tom Vitaglione with the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force said there’s still no explanation why.
The mortality rate among infants identified as minorities rose last year.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/8309430/

SBS: Mis-handled evidence in North Carolina

Durham, N.C. — A Durham man behind bars for more than a decade on a murder charge was released on bond Friday as he awaits a new trial.
Derrick Michael Allen, 31, was charged in 1998 in the death and sexual assault of a 2-year-old girl. An autopsy showed the girl died of shaken baby syndrome.
Police said that Allen was babysitting the girl at the Wellington Place apartments on Garrett Street when someone called 911 to report a 2-year-old child who was having problems breathing.
An autopsy showed the girl died of shaken baby syndrome.
The child was pronounced dead a short time later at Duke University Medical Center.
Allen claimed he was innocent and is awaiting a new trial.
A Superior Court judge released Allen on an unsecured bond.
Allen's case is among 200 cases an outside audit said were mishandled by North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation. The audit revealed SBI agents failed to report correct blood evidence in the cases.
http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/8274318/

SIDS: Investigation of infant deaths at Fort Bragg, NC

By Mike Hixenbaugh
Fort Bragg officials say they have found no direct links between 10 unexplained infant deaths that have occurred in base housing units the past few years.
There were no indications of foul play in any of the cases, military investigators said, but they are continuing to search for common environmental factors that might explain the string of deaths. All of the infant fatalities have occurred since 2007.
The formal investigation began earlier this summer, when base officials learned that two babies had died three months apart after living at different times in the same home, said Brig. Gen. Michael Garrett, chief of staff of the 18th Airborne Corps.
A third child who had lived in the same house died suddenly and without explanation two years earlier.
"What got my attention is that we had multiple deaths associated with one set of quarters," Garrett said. "That is really the focus of our investigation."
Military pathologists listed the cause of death in seven of the cases as "undetermined." One was labeled sudden infant death syndrome, and two are still under investigation, officials said.
The Army Criminal Investigative Command has so far found no common factors among the deaths, said Chris Grey, a spokesman with the CID.
John Shay, program manager for Picerne Military Housing, said all the base homes managed by the private firm "are held to the same high standard." He said repeated tests have shown no evidence of toxic mold or faulty drywall at the houses in question.
Grey and Shay declined to detail where the infant deaths have occurred on post.
"At this point, we don't have any concrete information or evidence that any of these deaths are linked in any manor whatsoever, so we're not going to alarm the public by putting out specific neighborhoods," Grey said.
Other Fort Bragg-based agencies are assisting in the investigation, Grey said.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency that monitors the quality of building materials, also is looking into the matter, a spokesman with the agency said.
Until those investigations are complete, Bragg officials said there is no need for soldiers or their families to worry.
"My sense is that our housing is world-class, and we know that," Garrett said. "We do things to a very, very high standard to ensure our soldiers and their families have the absolute best quarters that we can provide."
Garrett said the military is conducting a "full spectrum of environmental testing" to determine what can be done to prevent any other deaths on post. Investigators have tested drywall, airflow and carbon monoxide levels at each of the homes where infants have died, officials said.
Families upset
That's of little comfort to Staff Sgt. Tavares Pollard and his wife, Melissa.
Jamie Hernan, the couple's lawyer, said the Pollards were heartbroken in April 2009 when their 2-month-old son, Jay'vair, died suddenly at their home in the Ardennes neighborhood on post.
Less than three months later, the couple's 7-month-old niece died under similar circumstances during an extended stay at the home, Hernan said.
It's the same military housing unit where another family was living when their baby died unexpectedly at an off-post day care center in February 2007, investigators said.
"That's three cases tied to one home," Hernan said. "There's too much in common between them for there not to be a link."
Picerne finished construction on the Ardennes neighborhood in 2005, a company official said.
Military investigators have refused to release environmental test results taken at the home and at other base housing units, Hernan said. He said the Pollards, who have since moved to another home, are tired of waiting for answers.
Hernan is representing at least one other family that lost a child on post.
"Primarily, they want to know what happened to their children," Hernan said. "They're also concerned that what caused the death of their children might still be present in base housing and other children might be at risk."
Paris Mayo has the same fear, she said. Mayo's 3-month-old daughter died unexpectedly in September 2008 while living in the Casablanca neighborhood on post.
Mayo and her husband, Spc. Kasi Mayo, still live in the community, and now they fear their newborn son might be at risk.
"Nobody has told me anything," Paris Mayo said. "I just want to make sure my baby is safe."
About 18,000 people live in roughly 6,200 houses on Fort Bragg, officials said.
Officials were unable to provide an official estimate of how many infants were born into military housing units each of the past four years, making it impossible to calculate the rate of unexpected infant deaths on post.
'Teachable moment'
About 1 in 1,100 infants born in North Carolina died of sudden infant death syndrome in 2007 and 2008, according to the latest figures from the state Center for Health Statistics.
Col. Jeffrey Kingsbury, chief of preventative medicine at Womack Army Medical Center, said he suspects the rate on Fort Bragg is probably in line with the rest of the country. He called the string of infant deaths a "teachable moment" and suggested safety measures to help prevent unexpected infant deaths.
Kingsbury said parents should never leave babies to sleep on their stomachs and cautioned against exposing infants to secondhand smoke.
"There are things that can be done to help prevent these tragedies from happening," he said. "This is an opportunity to get the information out there."
http://fayobserver.com/articles/2010/08/31/1026573?sac=Home

AHT: North Carolina: Man gets 12 to 15 years in toddler's death

September 2, 2010
By Winston-Salem Journal
LEXINGTON (MCT) — The pain of Lily Grace Crowell's death at 21 months old was palpable every­where in Davidson Superior Court on Wednesday as Travis Christopher Lemmond, the man who pleaded guilty in July to killing her, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for second-degree murder.
It was in the buttons bearing a black-and-white photo of Lily's smiling face and the words "Justice for Lily Grace" that were worn by more than 30 people who came to the sentencing hearing yesterday.
And it was in Lemmond's trembling voice as he apologized for what happened to Lily Grace, who was his girlfriend's daughter. Prosecutors said Lily was shaken to death.
Lemmond's friends and family described him Wednesday as a tender-hearted man who cared deeply for Lily. But after the hearing, Lily's great-aunt, Donna Prow, said she didn't believe that Lemmond truly felt sorry for what he did.
Lemmond was baby-sitting Lily on the night of Nov. 19, 2009, at the Lexington apartment that he shared with Lily's mother. The woman, Hannah Colby Crowell, had gone to Asheville to visit friends.
Lemmond told authorities that Lily had been trying to get toys out of a wooden chest when she let go of the lid and fell on her back. Then, he said, a candleholder fell off the toy chest and hit her on the head.
Lily seemed fine, Lemmond told investigators, except for when she vomited a few hours later.
Lemmond told investigators that at 6:15 the morning of Nov. 20, he found her not breathing and her lips blue. He called Lily's grandmother, and her grandfather, Michael Crowell, came later.
Crowell said in court that he knew Lily was dead when he held her cold body but didn't have the heart to tell Lemmond.
They went to Lexington Memorial Hospital, where Lily was later pronounced dead.
Crowell said he had supported Lemmond until he read the autopsy, which said that Lily's death had been caused by blunt-force injury to the head that resulted in severe bleeding around the brain, the back of her eyes and within an optic nerve.
Crowell said Lemmond didn't tell him everything and has not shown any remorse.
Assistant District Attorney Greg Brown said that Lemmond's story didn't fit with the physical evidence. Brown said that the hemorrhaging in Lily's brain was consistent with shaken-baby syndrome.
Lemmond was initially charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. Brown said that the second-degree murder plea was offered in part because there were no witnesses except Lemmond and that Lily's mother, Hannah Colby Crowell, continued to live with Lemmond up until his guilty plea in July
http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/09/02/article/man_gets_12_to_15_years_in_toddlers_death

North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation -- investigated!

'Bloody' evidence put man in prison 12 years
Toddler's panties had actually tested negative - information that was withheld in court.
By J. Andrew Curlissacurliss Posted: Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010

The story so far
In the recent series, "Agents' Secrets," The News & Observer revealed widespread problems at the SBI. The report showed agents bullying the vulnerable, analysts ignoring the confines of science, and policies and procedures biased toward prosecutors.
Last week, Attorney General Roy Cooper released an audit of the blood analysis unit that found a systematic practice of withholding critical blood tests in reports presented to prosecutors as recently as 2003. As many as 230 cases have been tainted.
Last month, after questions from The N&O, Cooper replaced SBI Director Robin Pendergraft with Greg McLeod. McLeod has since removed the head of the SBI lab and begun a search to find his replacement. He removed three analysts from casework and suspended another. McLeod said he will order audits of other lab sections.
A homegrown agent
Jennifer A. Elwell, the SBI lab agent who handled testing on the Derrick Allen case, could not be reached for an interview. The News & Observer attempted to reach her directly and through leaders at the SBI.
This month, an independent audit critical of the SBI raised questions about blood analysis work in 37 cases that Elwell handled.
The SBI provided background information on Elwell that says she received a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry in 1988 from California State University, Northridge.
She was a forensic serologist starting in November 1988, analyzing blood, semen and saliva. Since 1995, she has been a forensic biologist dealing with serology and DNA matching. She is listed as the acting special agent in charge of the SBI's forensic body fluid section. She has testified in court on serology about 150 times, and on DNA about 30 times.
Her salary is $67,917.
DURHAM In the summer of 1999, prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for high school dropout Derrick Michael Allen when they switched course and offered him a deal.
In exchange for guilty pleas to the murder and sexual assault of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter, they would spare his life but ensure he was in prison into his 60s.
The prosecutors trumpeted two powerful pieces of evidence: a pair of bloodstained panties and bloody pajamas, certified as such in a lab report by the State Bureau of Investigation that supported their theory that the girl was violently assaulted.
But records show that the SBI performed crucial, confirmatory tests on the clothing three times, and all tests were negative for blood.
A review of the case against Allen, which was built in large part on the work of the SBI, is a window into one of more than 200 criminal files across North Carolina in which the state agency's blood analysis work is in doubt.
A blistering audit made public Aug. 18 says that SBI lab agents misstated or overstated blood test results from 1987 until 2003, when their methods changed with new testing procedures.
Further, a series of reports in The News & Observer in early August showed that lab analysts have bent rules and pushed past the bounds of accepted science to deliver reports that bolstered prosecutors' cases.
The newspaper reports and the audit have jolted the state's justice system, raised the possibility of constitutional violations against defendants and prompted court officials to begin reviewing dozens of homicide, rape, assault and other cases.
The questioned lab work doesn't mean that suspects, including Allen, are innocent. But it could undermine how convictions were won or guilty pleas reached. In some cases it likely affected the types of charges leveled and the punishments handed down.
Allen's case, which 12 years ago grabbed headlines for months, will likely receive fresh scrutiny.
Allen, who was 19 at the time, had always maintained he was innocent of the sensational crime, telling the police, the toddler's family and a newspaper reporter that he never hurt the child.
A week ago, outside his cell, Allen shut his eyes tight and barely moved when he was first told that the stains that played a significant role in upending his life were now in question.
"I'm just happy the truth might come out," he said, finally.
Allen said that he welcomes the new attention to his case, though he refused to discuss the details of what happened to the child on the advice of his lawyer. "I never wanted to accept that plea," he said.
His current court-appointed lawyer, Lisa A. Williams of Durham, and the elected Durham district attorney, Tracey Cline, both declined to comment on the ramifications of the blood analysis in Allen's case.
Cline, who has prosecuted many sex crimes, said only that she wants justice in every case.
Beyond the blood work, there are other fundamental concerns about the handling of the case against Allen, based on interviews, court documents and other records. Suspect from the start
Police suspected Allen had hurt Adesha Artis almost from the moment that he called 911 dispatchers at 2:29 p.m. on Feb. 9, 1998, and asked that an ambulance come to an apartment complex off Garrett Road in southwestern Durham.
"All I knew, um, I got her out of the tub... putting her clothes on... and she passed out," he told a dispatcher that afternoon.
The child's mother had gone to work that morning and left the child in her apartment with Allen and a woman described as her cousin.
The mother, Diane Jones, told police the cousin was in charge of the bright toddler, who had been learning her ABCs and loved dogs. Her bed sheets were covered in dogs from "101 Dalmatians."
Four minutes after the first call to 911, Allen dialed again and said the girl wasn't breathing. Allen told paramedics at the scene a variation of the same story, that he was either giving her a bath or had just given her a bath and the girl passed out.
Paramedics took Desha, as she was called, to Duke Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
A doctor at Duke examined the girl and noticed a vaginal tear and some blood in that area. The doctor told police it was evidence of a sexual assault, reports show.
Then, a nurse noticed something she said was unusual: As Allen and the mother held the child's body in mourning, Allen lifted a sheet and tried to look at the girl's "private" areas, according to a police report.
Later, when officers first interviewed Desha's mother, she said that she did not suspect that Allen did anything to the girl and that, the night before, she had applied Vaseline to the child's bottom because of a scab that was bleeding. She at first gave police a different name for Allen.
And Allen at first gave police his younger brother's name and birthday, then later acknowledged that he told a lie because he had pending warrants on charges of driving without a license. His record also included a charge of assault against his mother, and he acknowledged frequently smoking marijuana.
When he was confronted with the doctor's opinions on a possible sexual assault, Allen asked for immediate testing, according to police.
"He stated that he wants us to check him, check his hands, his blood, whatever we need to prove that he did not sexually assault the baby," a police investigator wrote. Police charged him with assault that night.
Police also swabbed his hands and clipped all 10 fingernails.
Two days after police submitted the items to the SBI for testing, Allen wrote to the child's mother from jail. At the time, the only charge against him was sexual assault.
"You and your child are the world to me," he wrote. "Baby, you don't got to believe me! But you'll believe that test! And I promise you that your family and the police are wrong. Just wait, you'll see."
Desha's grandmother declined to comment. Diane Jones could not be reached.
By all accounts, the cousin, Zakia A. Ward, was at the apartment with Allen until she was picked up by a relative about 2 p.m. - a half hour before the 911 call.
The day of death
The next day, Ward described for police an unusual morning in which Allen disciplined the child several times as part of toilet training. The child's mother would later tell police that her practice during potty training was to "pop" the child's bottom or arms, using her hand. Allen has said that he followed her methods on that day.
The child at one point during the day seemed to go into a seizure, according to statements both Allen and Ward gave to police.
Ward said it was 12:30 p.m. or 1 p.m., after Allen was with the child in the bathroom, cleaning her and scolding her.
Ward told police the toddler came out of the bathroom in Allen's arms. She was shaking and had her head down.
Ward said the baby stopped shaking within minutes. Shortly after that, she said, while she was on the phone, she heard a banging sound, "like maybe two heads bouncing together."
She also said he changed her underwear a couple of times that day and seemed protective of the child.
Ward's ride arrived at 2 p.m., according to her and phone records. She said she gave Desha a hug and the girl felt "stiff" but that she responded with two- and four-word sentences to a couple of questions and was last seen "chillin' " on a bed.
When paramedics arrived at 2:39 p.m., the child was unconscious and lifeless, medical reports show.
An autopsy found the cause of death to be shaken baby syndrome, a violent shaking of the child. Almost a month after the death, Allen was charged with first-degree murder.
The state's evidence against Allen was outlined in court on the day of his guilty plea. Durham prosecutor Freda Black read Ward's statement to police almost verbatim, adding that after Ward left the apartment at 2 p.m., "no one but Derrick Allen knows what happened."
The prosecutor told the judge that investigators also seized a number of items from the apartment.
"The most significant item they found there," Black told the judge, "was a pair of bloody panties on the floor of the bathroom."
She noted the vaginal tear and said in court that blood was found "near" that same spot on the pajamas that Desha wore to the hospital.
"He never was able to give an explanation about why the child had a tear to her vagina or why she had blood on her pajamas or on her underwear," Black said, according to a transcript of the hearing. "So Derrick Allen was arrested very shortly thereafter for the sexual offense."
Allen has said he can't explain any evidence of sexual assault because he didn't do it.
Faulty blood work
SBI records and the recent critical audit of the agency show the blood analysis that was crucial to the sexual assault charge was faulty.
When police submitted the evidence to the SBI for testing, the lead investigator wrote a memo outlining the case and suspicions about the evidence. That practice has come under criticism recently as an example of how the SBI lab takes cues from law enforcement instead of following the science.
SBI forensic agent Jennifer A. Elwell tested 20 items in the Allen case for blood, records show.
Elwell wrote in a three-page lab report that her blood analysis resulted in "chemical indications for the presence of blood" on five of the items: Two pajama outfits, two pairs of panties and a T-shirt.
But her report didn't reflect the truth.
The positive results came from a preliminary test that is prone to give false positive answers. (A negative result on that first test is considered reliable and, typically, no further testing is then done.)
The records show Elwell performed more conclusive, confirmatory testing on four of the items - and those tests came back negative, according to the lab reports. The recent SBI audit, which was authored by two former FBI agents, also identified the Allen case as one in which the blood analysis was in question.
One of the negative tests was on the panties that were seized from the bathroom floor, which Elwell wrote in her notes had a "very dilute" stain on them and were negative "x2" in confirmatory testing - a direct contradiction of what prosecutor Freda Black would later say in court.
The same confirmation test was also negative on the pajamas recovered from the child at the hospital.
Those negative findingsweren't documented in the SBI's final laboratory report.
From the court files, it appears that Elwell's rough notes were available to Allen's lawyers, and to Black, before Allen's plea deal. But the notes that show the negative results are far more obscure than the official written lab report that indicated positive results.
No one raised objections about the results prior to the plea.
The SBI analysis did not find any semen or sperm on any of the evidence that was seized. There was no evidence found on Allen's fingernails.
The only place blood was confirmed was on a paper towel and on a bath towel. Blood stains on both those items were "very dilute," according to the SBI lab notes. In the 911 call, Allen had said there was blood coming from Desha's nose.
The SBI did not perform any DNA testing to determine whose blood was on the items.
In 2004, citing a then relatively new state law that gave inmates the ability to seek DNA testing on evidence in their cases, Allen filed a request from jail to get that done. Black objected in a court hearing that Allen attended.
There is no record in his files of any DNA tests being performed. Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/08/31/1656394/bloody-evidence-put-man-in-prison.html#ixzz0yllwIcU3