06-18-2014, 04:38 AM
Lacey's been arrested
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/investig.../10665173/
His killing, police said, was the final act of a deranged mother who, fueled by attention on social media, medically tortured her child for years.
Lacey Spears pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and manslaughter charges in the poisoning death of her five-year-old son, Garnett. She was ordered held without bail at Westchester County jail and is due back in court July 2.
The only words the 26-year-old Alabama native uttered in state Supreme Court in White Plains were "Yes, sir," when Justice Barry Warhit asked if she was Lacey Spears.
Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd presented the government's case, focusing on Spears' time at Nyack Hospital between Jan. 17 and 19 when, Lloyd said, the mother took Garnett into the hospital room's private bathroom and administered the sodium into a tube in the boy's stomach.
"This mother was intentionally feeding her son salt in toxic levels," Lloyd said
Lloyd said prosecutors know from computer records that Spears had searched the Internet to research what the effects of salt would be on her son.
Earlier in the day, Spears' head was bowed as she walked into the back door of Westchester County Police headquarters in Hawthorne, escorted by detectives. Her father, Terry, had his arm around her as she solemnly surrendered. After being processed -- and having her mug shot taken -- Spears left the headquarters silently, not answering reporters' questions before getting into the back of a black, unmarked police car and speeding off.
Acting on a sealed grand jury indictment, law enforcement on Tuesday obtained a warrant to arrest the former Chestnut Ridge resident on a charge of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the Jan. 23 death of her son, Garnett, at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla, sources said. The murder charge does not accuse her of intentionally killing her son but of acting with depraved indifference toward his life. Spears, 26, who had been staying with her parents in Kentucky, had returned to Westchester and was accompanied by her attorney, David Sachs.
The grand jury's vote concluded a two-week presentation from prosecutors, who based their case on months of investigation in New York, Florida and Alabama -- where Spears and her son lived -- and Tennessee, where they visited Vanderbilt University Hospital.
Capt. Christopher Calabrese, commander of the Westchester County Police Detective Division, said the investigation involved hundreds of interviews and the analysis of tens of thousands of pages of medical records by Westchester and Ramapo detectives and the Westchester County District Attorney's office.
"This is a very sad day for everyone, but it is a day for justice," Calabrese said. "Justice for the betrayal of the intimate trust between a mother and child, justice for a mother's continual abuse and death of her innocent child for her own selfish psychological needs and financial gain; justice for Garnett."
Authorities suspect the single mother, who was a constant presence on social media sharing stories of Garnett's medical crises, may have poisoned the little boy at least twice; once before he experienced seizures that sent him to Nyack Hospital Jan. 17 and again on Jan. 19 at Nyack when his sodium level spiked and he had to be flown to Valhalla.
As Garnett lay dying in the hospital, a Chestnut Ridge neighbor said Spears called and told her to dispose of a bag Spears used to feed the boy through a tube. Police later recovered the bag which had extremely high levels of sodium.
The homicide case may be one of the first involving Munchausen by proxy – a psychiatric disorder in which a parent sickens a child to garner sympathy – in the era of social media.
Spears was living with Garnett in the secluded Fellowship Community when the alleged crime occurred. She faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge and up to 25 years for manslaughter.
The reaction in Spears' hometown of Decatur, Ala., was swift.
Former nurse Ginger Dabbs-Anderson, who first met Spears and Garnett when the boy was six months old, was grateful for the action, but remorseful that it came too late to save Garnett, who friends called "G."
"I'm happy they got her and I do believe that she's had this problem for years and that he's been suffering at her hands. I really wish we could have prevented this because there were signs.
"Maybe the hospitals should have caught it, maybe her parents should have caught it, maybe those people closest to her should have caught it. She put all over Facebook how wonderful she was. She had us all snowed, she had us all believing she was wonderful. But obviously not."
The former nurse was not surprised to learn that officials suspect Spears may suffer a psychological disorder.
"I don't care if it is a case of Munchausen by Proxy. I think she should get whatever it is anyone else who murders someone gets."
Shawna Lynch, who knew Spears before Garnett was born and initially defended her, said: "I cried. It broke my heart but thank God they're finally going to get justice for G. I just hope she gets what she deserves. I know G's not coming back, but at least we'll have justice for him."
At the Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, people were saddened at the mention of Spears and her son.
"There has to be some way where this isn't true," said one woman who wished not to be named.
Another Fellowship member said she couldn't reconcile the Spears she knew with the one in court on Tuesday.
"I don't see her as a murderer," the woman said. "I think (it was) sickness and I think a lot of things happen to us in our lives that are tragic and make us seek this kind of grief or sympathy that she was looking for. We all do it in different ways. I think it was really wrong of course, and I think it was terrible and all I can do is pray for her."
The charges relate to Garnett's death, but authorities suspect Spears subjected him to past medical abuse, fueled by attention on Facebook, Twitter and blog posts. She presented herself as a doting mother caring for a son who'd been in and out of hospitals his entire life. In a Facebook post in November 2009, she wrote that Garnett was back in the hospital again, his 23rd hospital visit in his first year.
The investigation began in January, while Garnett was still alive, when doctors at Maria Fareri alerted police that the boy's sodium level had spiked to suspiciously high levels.
Witnesses told The Journal News they saw a doctor at Maria Fareri confront Spears the night of Jan. 19, shortly after she and her son arrived there on an emergency helicopter flight from Nyack. The doctor told her it was "metabolically impossible" for her son's body to produce such extreme levels, and that "something isn't right."
At Maria Fareri, Spears continued to sleep in Garnett's room and had unmonitored access to him in the room's attached bathroom, sources said. There was a similar setup at Nyack Hospital.
The boy was alert and talking on the night of Jan. 20 when friends visited him and Spears in his hospital room. One friend recalled the 5-year-old pleading with her: "Don't leave me."
It wasn't until the following morning, Jan. 21 — after Garnett's condition worsened and he "coded" — that the medical staff notified the state's child-abuse hotline, prompting police and the district attorney's office to get involved. The boy was taken off life support and declared dead Jan. 23.
![[Image: 1403040541000-laceymugjpg.jpg]](http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/2f44ca0f8f1b277b1cf09dce9d76bc87c8ba75f0/c=0-52-240-232&r=x383&c=540x380/local/-/media/Westchester/GenericImages/2014/06/17//1403040541000-laceymugjpg.jpg)
MUGSHOT^
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/investig.../10665173/
His killing, police said, was the final act of a deranged mother who, fueled by attention on social media, medically tortured her child for years.
Lacey Spears pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and manslaughter charges in the poisoning death of her five-year-old son, Garnett. She was ordered held without bail at Westchester County jail and is due back in court July 2.
The only words the 26-year-old Alabama native uttered in state Supreme Court in White Plains were "Yes, sir," when Justice Barry Warhit asked if she was Lacey Spears.
Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd presented the government's case, focusing on Spears' time at Nyack Hospital between Jan. 17 and 19 when, Lloyd said, the mother took Garnett into the hospital room's private bathroom and administered the sodium into a tube in the boy's stomach.
"This mother was intentionally feeding her son salt in toxic levels," Lloyd said
Lloyd said prosecutors know from computer records that Spears had searched the Internet to research what the effects of salt would be on her son.
Earlier in the day, Spears' head was bowed as she walked into the back door of Westchester County Police headquarters in Hawthorne, escorted by detectives. Her father, Terry, had his arm around her as she solemnly surrendered. After being processed -- and having her mug shot taken -- Spears left the headquarters silently, not answering reporters' questions before getting into the back of a black, unmarked police car and speeding off.
Acting on a sealed grand jury indictment, law enforcement on Tuesday obtained a warrant to arrest the former Chestnut Ridge resident on a charge of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the Jan. 23 death of her son, Garnett, at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla, sources said. The murder charge does not accuse her of intentionally killing her son but of acting with depraved indifference toward his life. Spears, 26, who had been staying with her parents in Kentucky, had returned to Westchester and was accompanied by her attorney, David Sachs.
The grand jury's vote concluded a two-week presentation from prosecutors, who based their case on months of investigation in New York, Florida and Alabama -- where Spears and her son lived -- and Tennessee, where they visited Vanderbilt University Hospital.
Capt. Christopher Calabrese, commander of the Westchester County Police Detective Division, said the investigation involved hundreds of interviews and the analysis of tens of thousands of pages of medical records by Westchester and Ramapo detectives and the Westchester County District Attorney's office.
"This is a very sad day for everyone, but it is a day for justice," Calabrese said. "Justice for the betrayal of the intimate trust between a mother and child, justice for a mother's continual abuse and death of her innocent child for her own selfish psychological needs and financial gain; justice for Garnett."
Authorities suspect the single mother, who was a constant presence on social media sharing stories of Garnett's medical crises, may have poisoned the little boy at least twice; once before he experienced seizures that sent him to Nyack Hospital Jan. 17 and again on Jan. 19 at Nyack when his sodium level spiked and he had to be flown to Valhalla.
As Garnett lay dying in the hospital, a Chestnut Ridge neighbor said Spears called and told her to dispose of a bag Spears used to feed the boy through a tube. Police later recovered the bag which had extremely high levels of sodium.
The homicide case may be one of the first involving Munchausen by proxy – a psychiatric disorder in which a parent sickens a child to garner sympathy – in the era of social media.
Spears was living with Garnett in the secluded Fellowship Community when the alleged crime occurred. She faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge and up to 25 years for manslaughter.
The reaction in Spears' hometown of Decatur, Ala., was swift.
Former nurse Ginger Dabbs-Anderson, who first met Spears and Garnett when the boy was six months old, was grateful for the action, but remorseful that it came too late to save Garnett, who friends called "G."
"I'm happy they got her and I do believe that she's had this problem for years and that he's been suffering at her hands. I really wish we could have prevented this because there were signs.
"Maybe the hospitals should have caught it, maybe her parents should have caught it, maybe those people closest to her should have caught it. She put all over Facebook how wonderful she was. She had us all snowed, she had us all believing she was wonderful. But obviously not."
The former nurse was not surprised to learn that officials suspect Spears may suffer a psychological disorder.
"I don't care if it is a case of Munchausen by Proxy. I think she should get whatever it is anyone else who murders someone gets."
Shawna Lynch, who knew Spears before Garnett was born and initially defended her, said: "I cried. It broke my heart but thank God they're finally going to get justice for G. I just hope she gets what she deserves. I know G's not coming back, but at least we'll have justice for him."
At the Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, people were saddened at the mention of Spears and her son.
"There has to be some way where this isn't true," said one woman who wished not to be named.
Another Fellowship member said she couldn't reconcile the Spears she knew with the one in court on Tuesday.
"I don't see her as a murderer," the woman said. "I think (it was) sickness and I think a lot of things happen to us in our lives that are tragic and make us seek this kind of grief or sympathy that she was looking for. We all do it in different ways. I think it was really wrong of course, and I think it was terrible and all I can do is pray for her."
The charges relate to Garnett's death, but authorities suspect Spears subjected him to past medical abuse, fueled by attention on Facebook, Twitter and blog posts. She presented herself as a doting mother caring for a son who'd been in and out of hospitals his entire life. In a Facebook post in November 2009, she wrote that Garnett was back in the hospital again, his 23rd hospital visit in his first year.
The investigation began in January, while Garnett was still alive, when doctors at Maria Fareri alerted police that the boy's sodium level had spiked to suspiciously high levels.
Witnesses told The Journal News they saw a doctor at Maria Fareri confront Spears the night of Jan. 19, shortly after she and her son arrived there on an emergency helicopter flight from Nyack. The doctor told her it was "metabolically impossible" for her son's body to produce such extreme levels, and that "something isn't right."
At Maria Fareri, Spears continued to sleep in Garnett's room and had unmonitored access to him in the room's attached bathroom, sources said. There was a similar setup at Nyack Hospital.
The boy was alert and talking on the night of Jan. 20 when friends visited him and Spears in his hospital room. One friend recalled the 5-year-old pleading with her: "Don't leave me."
It wasn't until the following morning, Jan. 21 — after Garnett's condition worsened and he "coded" — that the medical staff notified the state's child-abuse hotline, prompting police and the district attorney's office to get involved. The boy was taken off life support and declared dead Jan. 23.
MUGSHOT^