3 Month Old Baby Beaten to Death at Homeless Shelter

[AKA2D '91]

When will the madness end?

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by vgcdelta
Needless to say we are all saddened here. As of the last report I saw, the surviving twin is released and the mother is still hospitalized. They had a pic of the twins when they were newborns in todays paper and it was heartbreaking to say the least.

Thanks for the update, LadyGreek. This story is more than heartbreaking. It's infuriating. I read the www.twincities.com story yesterday.

[delph998]

This happened in my city and I'm very hurt and devastated. People are going through a lot...we need to go in prayer for people who are losing their sanity.

[Steeltrap]

A law firm is setting up a trust fund for the surviving baby who was allegedly thrown off a bridge into the Mississippi River by his mother, the child's grandmother said today.

Supreme Knowledge Allah survived the 75-foot fall from the Wabasha Street Bridge in downtown St. Paul on the Fourth of July, as did his mother, but his 14-month-old twin brother, Sincere Understanding Allah, died.

The boys' paternal grandmother, Sharon Sanders of Duluth, said the Apple Valley law firm of Guzman, Kallheim and Sharpe was doing the trust work for free.

Checks should be made out to the Baby Supreme Trust and sent to P.O. Box 16228, St. Louis Park, MN 55416, the grandmother and the firm said.

The boys' mother, Naomi Gaines, 24, of St. Paul, was charged Monday with second-degree murder and attempted murder. She did not enter a plea at her first court appearance, where bail was set at $500,000.

Prosecutors said Gaines pushed her stroller partway across the bridge, which was crowded with onlookers, kissed her babies and said she was sorry before throwing them into the river and then jumping in, shouting "freedom" on the way down. Gaines and Supreme were rescued. Sincere's body was recovered Sunday.

The boys' father, Khalid Allah, said Supreme seems lonely now.

"He's used to being right next to his brother," Allah said. "They sleep together, they bathe together, they eat together."

Ramsey County court records show Gaines has a history of depression and manic behavior. Last year, a doctor wrote in her file that she was "unable to care for self; found wandering street talking and singing nonsensically, with her four small children; psychotic." In August, Gaines agreed to treatment for mental illness at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis to avoid a pending court-imposed commitment.

Family members described Gaines as an artistic single mother who struggled with mental illness

Gaines grew up in Milwaukee, had her first baby at age 16 and, afterward, was a different person, her brother Nathaniel said. This wasn't just a teenage mother forced to grow up quickly - she seemed depressed, he said.

In 1996, Gaines moved to St. Paul and started a life with the father of her son Jalani, now 7. They had a second child, a daughter, Kaylah, now 2, before splitting up. Once again, Gaines' mood suffered. She eventually was diagnosed with postpartum depression and other mental illnesses, family members said.

"I don't think she got the help she needed," said aunt LaLita Stevenson, who added her niece was still suffering from depression when she came home from the hospital.

The twins were named in the fashion of the Five Percenters, a sect that split from the Nation of Islam and believes black people are gods. Five Percenters often adopt Allah, the Arabic name for God, as a surname during their quest to be "self-sufficient as a people," according to a Web site for the group.

The family said Gaines didn't practice as a Five Percenter, but that similar themes of overcoming oppression were present in her poetry and other artwork. Gaines recorded a CD of songs at a friend's St. Paul studio and, infrequently, took the stage at local clubs for spoken-word poetry performances Very often, she focused on a long-standing concern that society oppressed women, especially African-Americans.

"My niece has a big problem with how society was. She basically felt we were slaves without the chains," McMillan said.

Family members said they couldn't speculate on whether those themes may have echoed Friday night as she jumped screaming "Freedom."

"We don't condone what happened. I can't say we even understand it and I don't know if we ever will, but we still love our niece very much and will continue to support her," said Gaines' aunt LaShon McMillan.

[RedefinedDiva]

Originally posted by Steeltrap
Ramsey County court records show Gaines has a history of depression and manic behavior. Last year, a doctor wrote in her file that she was "unable to care for self; found wandering street talking and singing nonsensically, with her four small children; psychotic." In August, Gaines agreed to treatment for mental illness at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis to avoid a pending court-imposed commitment.

Why were the children not taken away from her?

If all of this was going on, someone should ahve intervened. Now, there is a child that is dead, a child without his twin, and overall, three kids left to face life with the knowledge that their mother is "crazy." That is terrible.

[ZTAMiami]

This is terrible. It sounds like the Andrea Yates situation (the one who drowned her 5 kids in Texas) She had been battling post partum depression since her first child and was advised not to have any more, but she did. How do you explainn to a little boy what really happened to his twin brother?

[FeeFee]

Originally posted by RedefinedDiva
Why were the children not taken away from her?

That's what I wanna know too. I mean, was she required to take any psychotropic medications???

So sad, so sad.

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by RedefinedDiva
Why were the children not taken away from her?

If all of this was going on, someone should ahve intervened. Now, there is a child that is dead, a child without his twin, and overall, three kids left to face life with the knowledge that their mother is "crazy." That is terrible.

Agreed. I wonder why the twins' father, not to mention her other kids' father (s) didn't intervene.

[BLUTANG]

W.Va. Woman Charged in Trying to Sell Son

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A mother has been charged with trying to sell her toddler son for $500 so she could buy a stash of the addictive painkiller OxyContin.

Brianna Marie Burns, 23, could get up to five years in prison if convicted.

Burns' grandmother contacted authorities after Burns allegedly offered to sell her the 2-year-old child. An undercover officer wired the grandmother and provided her with $500 for the exchange, according to police documents.

Burns was arrested Monday after receiving the money and signing custody of the child over to her grandmother. She was being held on $102,500 bond.

Child Protective Services has placed the child with another family member. is this a wise move?

OxyContin is a prescription painkiller often given to cancer patients. If chewed, snorted or injected, it produces a quick and potentially lethal high. The drug has been linked to more than 100 deaths.

The sale of a child was a misdemeanor in West Virginia until 1994, one year after a Charleston woman was convicted of trying to sell her 1-month-old baby to undercover officers for $1,400 so she could buy a mobile home. That led the state to change the law, making the crime a felony.

[tinydancer]

Jesus, keep me near the cross!!

What is wrong with people??? These stories are so incredibly sad. You know, there are people who would love children, but can't have them. This just breaks my heart.

[1savvydiva]

Honestly, I can't think of anything to say to describe my feelings after re-reading this entire thread.

SMH

[1savvydiva]

Posted on Wed, Jul. 09, 2003

Mother accused in child's death
Eastover woman allegedly gave daughter, 4, lethal doses of painkillers
By LORA HINES
Staff Writer

An Eastover mother was accused Tuesday of killing her 4-year-old daughter with painkillers.

Windie Whitaker Edgeington, 25, of 1160 Louis Leconte Road, was charged with homicide by child abuse in the June death of her daughter, Katelynn Edgeington.

Her bail hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. today. She was in the Richland County jail Tuesday.

Investigators say Edgeington had given her daughter prescription drugs at least twice before Katelynn died June 27 at the VA hospital in Columbia.

Results from preliminary toxicology tests show Katelynn had been given codeine and Demerol, both adult prescription painkillers, said Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.

"We're still waiting for more analysis," Watts said. "We don't know the concentration levels that were given." He said he hopes to have more information later in the week.

When Windie Edgeington called 911 about 1:30 p.m. June 27, she told dispatchers her daughter wasn't breathing, sheriff's investigators said.

Katelynn was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m. at the hospital.

Watts said Edgeington told coroner's investigators her daughter had complained of nausea and was vomiting before she called 911.

She didn't tell investigators she had given her daughter drugs, he said.

"She said her daughter hit her head on a swing set a couple days prior to the death," Watts said. "She thought the symptoms might have been caused by a head injury.

"(Katelynn) had a superficial scratch on her head. But there was not a head injury."

Deputy coroners found no other injuries, Watts said.

Watts said the coroner's office investigates all child deaths. When one deputy coroner went to the hospital to investigate Katelynn's death, another went to the Edgeington home to collect prescription medicines.

Investigators don't yet know why Edgeington gave drugs to her daughter, said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.

Edgeington became a suspect July 2 after preliminary toxicology reports came back for Katelynn.

"She lied about what she gave her child. We know they were drugs not normally given to a child," Lott said.

Katelynn's father, Jacob Edgeington, and her grandparents, Kenneth and Doris Koerner of Eastover, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Windie Edgeington has no criminal record, the State Law Enforcement Division said.

The Department of Social Services took the Edgeington's other child, 6-year-old Tiffani, into custody following Katelynn's death, said department spokesman Jerry Adams. She is living with a relative, Adams said.

The agency had no previous contact with the family, he said.

Windie Edgeington's attorney, Harry Heizer, could not be reached for comment.

[BabyBlue91]

I heard about this story yesterday, but The New York Times' report is a little more detailed today.

Disabled Girl Is Found Dead in Trash Truck
By MICHAEL BRICK and LESLIE KAUFMAN

The foster mother of a severely disabled 8-year-old girl told the police yesterday that when the girl died she panicked and left her body in a garbage bag on an Upper East Side sidewalk, officials said. After hours of searching, the police found the girl's tiny body — just 28 pounds — inside a garbage truck.

The police were questioning the foster mother, Renee Johnson, 50, of Queens, late yesterday. They said that Ms. Johnson would be charged with unlawful disposition of a body and that any other charges would depend on the results of a medical examiner's report and an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

The dead girl, Stephanie Ramos, spent her entire life in foster care, city officials said. They said she was mentally retarded, blind and diabetic and had difficulty keeping down food. Her body was prone to seizures, and she needed a gastrointestinal feeding tube and a wheelchair. She had the limbs and torso of a much younger child, the officials said, but her low weight was not in itself a sign of abuse.

Ms. Johnson cared for two other children, who are brother and sister. One has now been placed in another home, and the other is undergoing a medical evaluation and awaiting placement. Ms. Johnson received her assignments from a foster care agency that was on a city list of those most in need of improvement.

Ms. Johnson reported Stephanie missing on Tuesday evening from the Variety/Cody Gifford House for Children With Special Needs on East 91st Street, where she claimed to have dropped her off earlier with the other children. During questioning, however, the police said, detectives became suspicious of her story because they did not believe the girl could get around by herself. Ms. Johnson eventually changed her story, saying that the child had died and that she had placed her in a garbage bag on a sidewalk, the police said.

That prompted a nine-hour search. Bloodhounds and officers fanned out in three boroughs, concentrating on an area in Manhattan bordered by East 96th Street, East 86th Street, Fifth Avenue and the East River. Throughout the morning, officers could be seen picking through garbage bags and Dumpsters. By tracing garbage trucks that had served the East Side early in the morning, the police concentrated their search on a Bronx waste transfer station, where the body was found in a truck at 2 p.m. yesterday.

Stephanie had been placed with Ms. Johnson through the Variety/Cody Gifford House, by the Association to Benefit Children, a nonprofit group that trains and recruits foster parents under a contract with the city. The association was ranked 38th by the city out of 45 such agencies in 2000, and its ranking fell to 40th out of 42 in 2001, the most recent year for which data were available. It was on the city's list of four foster care agencies needing improvement.

"There were corrective action plans put in place," said Joseph Cardieri, general counsel for the city's Administration for Children's Services, though he added that in the area of home certification of foster parents, the association had a near-perfect score. "Everyone has said that the kids' needs were well met, they were well cared for," Mr. Cardieri said.

Leslye Schneider, director of Variety — the Children's Charity, which finances the Variety/Cody Gifford House, said it was unthinkable for a child to be harmed under the care of the Variety/Cody Gifford House.

Ms. Johnson was previously employed by the Richard Allen Center on Life, a foster care agency, which closed. She joined the association in 2000, taking an 8-to-10-week training course, but it was unclear whether she had received special training to care for disabled children.

The association placed a total of six children, several with special needs, with Ms. Johnson, who is a registered nurse. A boy, 7, and a girl, 8, brother and sister, were under her care until yesterday.

Officials with the Administration for Children's Services said there had never been a call to complain about Ms. Johnson. They said she has no biological children, though neighbors said that she had raised a daughter who now works in the medical profession in Boston. "At all points leading up to this moment," said MacLean Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the administration, "this foster parent has continually been looked to as an appropriate resource for special needs children."

The city paid $1,500 a month for the care of Stephanie, who was classified as an exceptional needs child, and $1,500 for the other girl, also classified as special needs, and a lower rate for the brother, who was not classified as special needs. Under city rules, a foster home can house as many as six children, but the licensing agency must weigh factors like special needs.

The three children lived with Ms. Johnson in a well-kept house at 146-39 220th Street in Springfield Gardens, Queens.

Neighbors, including Elovee Allen, who watched Stephanie for a few hours once a week while Ms. Johnson ran errands, said Ms. Johnson dressed the children in expensive-looking clothes and appeared to dote on them. She waited for the school bus to drop off her other two foster children in the afternoons and played with them in the yard, they said.

"It's shocking," said Ms. Allen, a nurse's assistant at a nursing home. "She's humble. She's honest. She takes care of those kids very good. She loved those kids dearly."

Another neighbor, Stephanie Drayton, said she had last seen Ms. Johnson around 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, when she climbed into a white livery cab, cradling Stephanie in her arms. A police investigator said that the livery cab driver had told the police that he never saw Stephanie's face but had assumed she was in the car.

The police also questioned the brother and sister, the investigator said. "The other two children were not afraid of her," the investigator said. "They seemed to like her, and they both sort of implied that she treated the other child well."

George F. Brown, chief of detectives, said Ms. Johnson dropped the brother and sister off at the center to meet their biological father at 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday. About two and a half hours later, Ms. Johnson contacted the police, saying she had also dropped Stephanie off at the center and that the girl was now missing, Chief Brown said. Under questioning, she changed her story around 5 a.m. yesterday, he said.

According to Chief Brown, Ms. Johnson then said that she had taken the girl into the Variety/Cody Gifford House, though it was unclear whether the girl was alive. Ms. Johnson told the police she went upstairs to a bathroom on the second floor, put the girl's body in a nylon bag, then walked out to a park on 91st Street, where she put the body in a black garbage bag before leaving it on a sidewalk at Second Avenue and East 89th Street, the chief said. Staff members at the center recalled seeing her walk in with a bundle covered by a blanket and then leave with the nylon bag, he said.

The chief said Ms. Johnson told the police that Stephanie had been ill and that she wanted to take the girl to see a doctor. Asked about Ms. Johnson's state of mind during the police interview, he said only, "She seemed indifferent in her conversation."

[mu_agd]

July 10, 2003


CALIFORNIA
Foster Mother Is Held in 2 Deaths
The boys, ages 3 and 5, were left in a sweltering car in Lancaster. No charges have yet been filed.


By Sue Fox and Allison Hoffman, Times Staff Writers


A Lancaster child-care center operator whose two foster sons died of heat exposure was arrested and held on suspicion of child cruelty Wednesday as authorities tried to determine why no one noticed the children sitting in a sweltering sport utility vehicle next to the center for more than five hours.

Leslie Sue Smoot, 48, was booked at the Lancaster sheriff's station late Tuesday, and bail was set at $100,000, said Lt. Al Grotefend of the sheriff's homicide unit. County prosecutors said Wednesday they had yet to see the detectives' report, but would consider filing manslaughter charges.

Coroner's officials identified the boys as 3-year-old Nehemiah Prince and his 5-year-old brother, Dakota Prince, and said autopsies would be performed as early as today.

Smoot told detectives that she left the boys in the SUV outside A Child's Place preschool after they arrived about 9 a.m. Tuesday and discovered them five hours later.

The 5-year-old was dead and his brother, suffering from severe dehydration, died a short time later at a hospital. Smoot told investigators that she thought someone else was going to bring the children in, Grotefend said. She also told them she forgot to retrieve them.

It is not clear if the children were enrolled at the school and would have been missed by other workers.

The events shocked clients of the center and its neighbors, who described Smoot as a long-time child-care provider who was a friendly, religious woman devoted to children and her profession.

Officials with the Trinity Children and Family Services Agency, a foster care group that certifies foster parents, said that Smoot and her husband, Larry, have cared for 35 foster children over the last nine years, including the brothers who died Tuesday. The Smoots were most recently certified in April, said Trinity spokeswoman Frances Larose.

"According to our records, there's nothing that would put Trinity on notice that these children were receiving anything but the highest quality of care," Larose said. "We're all just shocked."

Leslie Smoot's sister, Barbara, would only say: "It's horrible. There's no word's for what happened. She's been in this business for 20 years. This is terrible."There have been some complaints about the preschool.

The Smoots obtained a license to operate A Child's Place at 44405 N. Fig Ave. in 1996, said Blanca Castro, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services. The school had a capacity of 19 children. Three years later, A Child's Place received a license for an infant center with room for five babies.

In September 1998, a parent complained about an alleged lack of supervision at the preschool, saying children with wet diapers had been left in a crib and others were sleeping without blankets and pillows. Castro said that a state licensing analyst visited the center but, finding no proof, judged the complaint "inconclusive."

Three months later, the county health department filed a complaint about "severe physical plant deficiencies," including broken windows, faulty toilets and torn carpets, at the preschool. This time, the complaint was substantiated, Castro said.

In July 1999, investigators responded to another complaint about a lack of supervision and found that a teacher had left four children unattended. Two weeks later, a complaint that a 2-year-old child had been spanked was found to be inconclusive. Staff members denied the allegation.

In August 2000, the state cited the preschool for failing to fingerprint a worker. Investigators also found that a former employee with a suspended driver's license had been transporting children, Castro said.

Smoot opened another preschool nearby, at 44409 N. Fig Ave., in June 2001. This one, called A Child's Place Learning Center, was licensed to care for 22 children, Castro said.

And less than three months ago, on April 15, Smoot obtained a fourth state license to run a child-care center, an after-school program for children ages 5 to 12. Located at 1233 W. Avenue J-8 in Lancaster, it was licensed to serve 24 children.

A Child's Place remained closed Wednesday and state investigators were reviewing conditions at the Smoots' other facilities to determine whether they will remain open. Authorities also have removed the Smoots' other foster child and biological child from their home.

Castro added that, as a foster parent, Smoot drew two complaints within the last two years for allegedly yelling at children and letting their hair go unkempt. Both complaints were judged to be unfounded, she said.

Trinity officials said that Nehemiah and Dakota had been placed with the Smoots in March. Information about the boys' biological parents was not released.

David Sanders, director of the county's Department of Children and Family Services, said Wednesday his agency is investigating the events and petitioning the presiding judge of the juvenile court to release records about the boys.

"I need to have better information right now about how we ensure that the selection of the homes we use is adequate," he said. "From what I've seen so far, I don't know that I can say that."

Employees and some parents who use the Smoots' child-care centers expressed support.

"Some people would do something like this and you would say you weren't surprised. But with [the Smoots], it's a total surprise, a real shocker," said CeCe Bryan, 26, a child-care worker at the Smoots' after-school center who also sends her son to the preschool. "They are family-oriented and very religious. I can't believe this would happen to them."

Elizabeth Torres, 35, was picking up her 6-year-old daughter at the site and said the girl had attended the Smoots' centers since she was an infant.

"They were friendly and flexible. It's a fluke accident. I intend to keep my daughter here," she said.

But the operator of another child-care center said she was saddened and perplexed.

"We just don't understand," said Earlene Johns, director of the Sonshine Factory day-care center, about three miles from A Child's Place. A preschool's first priority, she said "is the safety of all these kids under our care. We know we have to be with children at all times and not leave them alone. We also know that we live in a desert area, and that you can't leave kids in your car for a second. That's something that's always stressed."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writers Karima Haynes, Carla Rivera, Wendy Thermos and Richard Winton contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...nes-california

[Peaches-n-Cream]

All of these stories are so sad. The story that BabyBlue 91 posted hits very close to home literally since it happened a few blocks from where I am now. This poor child. According to the last news report that I heard, they don't know how the child died yet. The authorities are waiting for a report from the medical examiner's office to see what charges should be filed.