Baby left in car seat for 8 days dies while Mom and dad play video games

[Nanuk]

It's not pretty, so don't read it if easily upset.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331732,00.html

[WVGeo]

My daughter is a social worker working with infants and small children in Baltimore. She sees crap like that all the time - and masters (kids don't rate a judge there) that keep giving destructive, self centered, druggy parents chance after chance. Don't ask her what she thinks should happen to scum like this - it wouldn't be pretty and it would involve them suffering.

[twisted buggy]

what the hell is wrong with poeple, i say they have the same thing coming to them ,lock um down and let them die

[KatherineA]

I would like to strap the parents into a chair for about 8 years - or however long it takes them to die.

(not an electric chair, that would be too mercifully quick)

[Chutney Daftcraft]

That's drugs right there. Probably Heroin.

I saw a movie once, and I'll never forget the scene when they were doing heroin for days and days, and the mother actually forgot that she had a baby because she was so wasted. When she was coming down, she remembered, and went to the room that the baby was in. The baby was dead. I cried a little, because I didn't know who I should have felt bad for, the baby, or the mother.

It's gotta be heroin. I mean, the sound of a baby crying is like the most annoying sound in the world. The baby wasn't beaten, or suffocated, so I have to wonder what really happened.

I'll axe my Mom if I hear from her. She lives just outside of Peoria, and they may have more details locally.

[JiveTurkey]

I have definitely seen some winners. Meth users pass out incoherent, too. I have had to physically wake them to feed their screaming babies. And a lot of times, they still don't do it. Makes you wonder who feeds them at home.

This area also has its share of DOA's, thankfully the public doesn't really hear about them.

[Chutney Daftcraft]

Yeah, I have a friend that was accused of having a crack baby. Not because the baby was unhealthy or anything, but because she spit that baby out about 30 minutes after her water broke. She was one of *those* women.

Needless to say, she still has her kid, and she doesn't do drugs. It took her 3 years to convince child services.

[Kensey]

I saw a movie once, and I'll never forget the scene when they were doing heroin for days and days, and the mother actually forgot that she had a baby because she was so wasted. When she was coming down, she remembered, and went to the room that the baby was in. The baby was dead. I cried a little, because I didn't know who I should have felt bad for, the baby, or the mother.

Sounds like Trainspotting.

[Wormdoc]

I can't even think of a punishment harsh enough for those two sorry sacks of s**t...KatA's sounds pretty good.

I'm glad the little three year old girl is out of that house and away from those worthless soulless pieces of trash. Hopefully this lil' one will have a chance, now.

[austrianalps]

Hmm, right now those two get a few warm meals a day in a dry and warm place. Oh and we are paying for this in taxes. Right!!!! What is wrong with this picture? 100 years in prison? Even the death penalty will take 20 years to come up for them. Surely there must be a better way to deal with criminals.

[WVGeo]

But somebody is bound to feel sorry for them because, after all, they've lost a child...

[Alina]

They deserve to be put in a metal shack in the middle of the desert strapped in a car seat and starved while they go piss and crap all over themselves. I hope they rot in hell.
Oh, and while they are there everyone can go in and beat the s**t out them.

[PhoenixOrion]

Surely there must be a better way to deal with criminals.

Yeah, it's called a wood chipper. Feet first.

[KemCam2]

I didn't read the article, cause, well, I'll cry...But I get the jist...

I am with TBuggy on this one...I am a pretty big fan of an eye for an eye. I still think that big ole B that strapped her kids into their car seats then pushed them into the lake (river? pond?) years ago should have been "dealt" with in that same fashion.

I hate people that are this stupid.
Because I didn't read the article, and don't really want to have to, can anyone tell me how or why the child was left in the car? (Without saying too much else...)

[naturenut]

Because I didn't read the article, and don't really want to have to, can anyone tell me how or why the child was left in the car? (Without saying too much else...)


The poor 5 month old child was NOT in the car, but in his carseat which was placed inside his crib. They were home playing video games, and God knows what else.

That couple is very scary looking and should be spayed and neutured! They should never be allowed to reproduce, or care for any "living thing" again in their life. The fact she has a 3 year old daughter, makes me wonder what that poor child has lived through. At least, for now, she's not in their custody!

[Nanuk]

The child wasn't left in the car. It was left strapped into it's car seat, which was then just set in the child's crib and ignored for eight days while the parents went on with their sad, pathetic lives.

[ministerswife]

As a nurse who for years worked in the ER in a hospital in one of Baltimore's toughest neighborhoods, Fayette and Broadway (those of you who know Baltimore know where I mean), like geodisist's daughter, I saw so much stuff like this; yet, as it did each time then, it still makes my heart cry whenever I hear about it.

[derricksonb]

Surely there must be a better way to deal with criminals.

There are better ways of dealing with POS criminals like these, but our nations band of hippie liberal lawyers in cooperation with the ACLU have managed to place criminal rights above victim rights. Somehow they will twist this couples story to make THEM seem like the victim.

[Chutney Daftcraft]

I still don't get it. Babies cry. They make noise. They don't just die.

The details of the story don't make sense. Were they even home? Did they leave the baby, and aren't telling? Unless you are on some serious hardcore drugs, how do you just ignore a baby?

I say drugs, because if you look at the evidence, a story that could get swept under the carpet pans out. I would have said that I thought the baby was at the sitter, and we went away for a long weekend. The baby must've never made it to the sitter, because I thought she took it, she thought I took it, and we went away to get away, so we weren't talking in detail about what we wanted a break from. The carseat placed in the crib could have paved the way for many stories that would have got them a MUCH reduced sentance. I would have even placed a packed bag next to the car seat to bolster that story with na new bag of huggies on the floor next to the crib. I mean, that survival/self preservation instict would have kicked in and I would have made SOMETHING up.

But they didn't even think of that, or do that. Because they were on drugs, apparantly. I'm not saying that they are faultless because of drugs, but I am saying that drugs, if proven they were on them, share the blame here. They deserve full punishment for it, but they also deserve some forgiveness (in a "society" kind of way) because they must not have been in control of themselves. The only conscious choice they made was to do drugs. Everything after that was a little beyond their control.

[Wormdoc]

City, according to the story:

"During the eight days the baby was strapped in the seat, both Hermann and Sargent were home, "playing video games, watching TV, feeding and caring for themselves," Lyons said"

Regardless of whether they were on drugs or not.......they deserve the worst possible punishment they can get. "Society" does not owe them forgiveness or even understanding.

[Chutney Daftcraft]

Yeah, I know what the story says. I wouldn't say "I was shooting up and was too trashed to hear my baby". Heroin is really the only thing that makes sense. Heroin wipes out who you were, and replaces that person with a zonbie. It's the only drug that could make someone do this. If they hated their baby and wanted it to die, they wouldn't have sat thru hours and hours of it crying unless they were on heroin. They would have murdered it, like you hear about in the news. I think it's the hours of endless crying that makes people snap and shake their baby to death.

Yes, they do deserve full punishment. I hope they get it, because this is generally unforgivable. However, like Nanuk said before, they have a sentancing matrix that they use, and the fact that the child died from neglect, as opposed to being murdered, will have an impact on their sentance. Don't be too surprised if they only get 5 years. :rolleyes:

[JiveTurkey]

City, I don't think the baby would cry as much as you think. The child was already quite ill before the car seat incident. The article said the baby weighed only 10 pounds. I am not going to get too graphic, but dehydrated babies are sleepy babies, generally.

[Chutney Daftcraft]

They may have Ny-Quil'ed it, too.

[Nanuk]

Heroin doesn't make people into insensitive zombies. I've met and dealt with many, many fully-functional long-term heroin users. So long as they get their drug, they're just fine and responsive--able to hold down jobs and interact with people who usually don't have a clue.

These two weren't heroin junkies. They were self-absorbed, selfish people who tuned the kid out by closing the bedroom door and turning up the TV and/or stereo. And as JT says, sickly babies don't cry long or loud. I've seen a lot of those too and they're lethargic more often than not. In fact that's often the first clue that a baby is sick--it doesn't cry or make noise.

Now these two getting five years...I'm not seeing that. This was too heinous and too inexcusable and sentencing guidelines allow for extenuating circumstances to come into play and raise the penalty substantially, especially if they're dumb enough to go to trial and let the prosecutor show pictures and put medical experts on the stand. And the fact that the 21 year old girl claimed that she already has a lawyer who isn't available this time suggests that she at least is no stranger to legal problems.

[Tony]

Ya that wire story leaves a lot to the imagination. The first degree murder charge means the prosecutor thinks he can prove they intended to kill the baby, but then how did they expect to get away with the crime?

Who found the body and how and why? It's not mentioned, only that eventually the police saw it.

Why did nobody notice the weight problem 8 days earlier? How much should a 5 month old weigh if it was 8 pounds at birth?

Here's a bit more, an interview with a grandmother that only adds more questions:
http://www.week.com/news/local/15890892.html

[JiveTurkey]

Why did nobody notice the weight problem 8 days earlier? How much should a 5 month old weigh if it was 8 pounds at birth?


I wasn't trying to be a know-it-all, but they call that "failure to thrive". A lot of times the Pediatrician will admit the baby to the hospital with that diagnosis. The nurses weigh the baby daily, and record every drop the baby feeds while in the hospital. If the baby gains good weight during the admission, it is safe to say it's domething the parents are (or aren't) doing. If the weight remains about the same, then other causes are pursued, like metabolic issues, allergies, or something else. A baby that weighs 8# at birth would probably weigh 10 # in 4-6 weeks, roughly. Healthy neonates are expected to gain about an ounce daily.

[Carl_kps]

That story was horrible.

[MountainMoon22]

These stories are so much worse since I've become a parent.

[Starbuck]

City, that does sound like Trainspotting. DH loves that movie, but I can't watch that scene, or the one later where dead baby is crawling on the ceiling.

The only comfort one can take here is the thought of what happens to babykillers in prison.