Pair In Butler County, Kentucky, Convicted Of Manslaughter In Baby's Death. I Was To Be Hired To Represent The Accused Mother, Who Was Charged With Murder, But I Declined!
Pair convicted in baby's death
Child's mother weeps upon hearing verdicts
By JUSTIN STORY
MORGANTOWN — The mother of a slain 5-month-old baby and her boyfriend were found guilty Friday of first-degree manslaughter and first-degree criminal abuse.
A jury of eight women and four men returned guilty verdicts against Brittany Garcia, 21, and Nicholas Staples, 26, both of Morgantown. They were found responsible as either principals or accomplices for the death of Angel Nicole Tucker, Garcia’s daughter.
Angel was found not breathing Dec. 1, 2009, in Staples’ Morgantown apartment, where Garcia was also living at the time. The baby died three days later at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
An autopsy conducted Dec. 7, 2009, determined that Angel’s death was a homicide caused by multiple blunt-force trauma injuries. Adele Lewis, the deputy chief medical examiner for Davidson County, Tenn., who performed the autopsy, testified earlier this week that Angel suffered from swelling of her brain and bleeding under her spinal cord.
Garcia buried her face in her hands and wept after Butler County Circuit Court Judge Ronnie Dortch read the guilty verdict against her. Staples lowered his head but did not otherwise react when he was informed of his conviction.
The jury, which heard three days of testimony, deliberated for three hours before coming back with the verdicts. The couple were originally charged with murder and first-degree criminal abuse.
Butler County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Coleman urged the jury in his closing argument to think about the two trips Angel took to The Medical Center at Bowling Green’s emergency room in the last month of her life - once on Nov. 6, 2009, and again on Dec. 1, 2009. Doctors who examined the baby during her second trip found fractures in five ribs and a fractured clavicle that were in various states of healing.
“She went through a month of hell at the hands of these two people, and now is the time for justice,” Coleman said.
Coleman’s closing argument also drew on prior testimony that Garcia and Staples were the only adults around the baby after 8 p.m. Nov. 30, 2009, and that Angel suffered the fatal trauma after that time.
Neither defendant testified during the trial.
Coleman claimed Garcia and Staples gave inconsistent accounts of their actions to Detective Brad Stevenson of the Kentucky State Police in the aftermath of Angel’s hospitalization.
“We know that the defendants were the only people with consistent access to (Angel) during the rib fractures and during when her collarbone was broken,” Coleman said.
Attorney Walter Hawkins of Bowling Green, representing Garcia, called attention to the multitude of doctors who examined Angel after she was taken to The Medical Center and then transferred to Vanderbilt on Dec. 1, 2009. Hawkins said Lewis was the only medical official who recorded trauma as the cause of death while other doctors mentioned brain herniation or a lack of oxygen to the brain as a contributing factor.
Hawkins said the prosecution’s case left too many unanswered questions, reminding jurors of earlier testimony that 15 adults, six children and 26 medical personnel were around Angel from Nov. 6, 2009, to the time she was found not breathing.
Hawkins also said in his closing argument that Angel was found face down in a palette of pillows, with that circumstance and the lack of oxygen to the brain reported by doctors being consistent with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“These are doctors who disagree (about the cause of death),” Hawkins said. “I don’t know if it’s as cut and dried as Dr. Lewis wants to make it.”
Staples’ attorney, Dennie Hardin of Bowling Green, shed light during his closing argument on the fact that the majority of witnesses called by Coleman offered no testimony directly tying Staples to the allegations.
Hardin questioned the credibility of the testimony of Chad Raymond, who was a cellmate of Staples at the Butler County Jail for about a month this year.
Raymond testified during the trial that Staples told him he was rough with the baby and did not care about her, but Hardin had produced four other cellmates who claimed to have never heard Staples talk about his case. Hardin went on to mention Raymond’s status as a confidential informant who would not have been well-received by other inmates.
“In jail culture, a snitch in a jail cell is like a pervert in a park - it’s going to cause an alarm,” Hardin said.
Garcia faces a maximum of 30 years in prison if the jury recommends that she serve the maximum sentence on each count consecutively. Staples, who has a prior felony conviction, could see his sentence enhanced to life in prison on the manslaughter conviction and a maximum of 20 years for first-degree criminal abuse.
Update, 11/23: jury recommends 25 years for the man, and 15 years for the baby's mother.
Child's mother weeps upon hearing verdicts
By JUSTIN STORY
MORGANTOWN — The mother of a slain 5-month-old baby and her boyfriend were found guilty Friday of first-degree manslaughter and first-degree criminal abuse.
A jury of eight women and four men returned guilty verdicts against Brittany Garcia, 21, and Nicholas Staples, 26, both of Morgantown. They were found responsible as either principals or accomplices for the death of Angel Nicole Tucker, Garcia’s daughter.
Angel was found not breathing Dec. 1, 2009, in Staples’ Morgantown apartment, where Garcia was also living at the time. The baby died three days later at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
An autopsy conducted Dec. 7, 2009, determined that Angel’s death was a homicide caused by multiple blunt-force trauma injuries. Adele Lewis, the deputy chief medical examiner for Davidson County, Tenn., who performed the autopsy, testified earlier this week that Angel suffered from swelling of her brain and bleeding under her spinal cord.
Garcia buried her face in her hands and wept after Butler County Circuit Court Judge Ronnie Dortch read the guilty verdict against her. Staples lowered his head but did not otherwise react when he was informed of his conviction.
The jury, which heard three days of testimony, deliberated for three hours before coming back with the verdicts. The couple were originally charged with murder and first-degree criminal abuse.
Butler County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Coleman urged the jury in his closing argument to think about the two trips Angel took to The Medical Center at Bowling Green’s emergency room in the last month of her life - once on Nov. 6, 2009, and again on Dec. 1, 2009. Doctors who examined the baby during her second trip found fractures in five ribs and a fractured clavicle that were in various states of healing.
“She went through a month of hell at the hands of these two people, and now is the time for justice,” Coleman said.
Coleman’s closing argument also drew on prior testimony that Garcia and Staples were the only adults around the baby after 8 p.m. Nov. 30, 2009, and that Angel suffered the fatal trauma after that time.
Neither defendant testified during the trial.
Coleman claimed Garcia and Staples gave inconsistent accounts of their actions to Detective Brad Stevenson of the Kentucky State Police in the aftermath of Angel’s hospitalization.
“We know that the defendants were the only people with consistent access to (Angel) during the rib fractures and during when her collarbone was broken,” Coleman said.
Attorney Walter Hawkins of Bowling Green, representing Garcia, called attention to the multitude of doctors who examined Angel after she was taken to The Medical Center and then transferred to Vanderbilt on Dec. 1, 2009. Hawkins said Lewis was the only medical official who recorded trauma as the cause of death while other doctors mentioned brain herniation or a lack of oxygen to the brain as a contributing factor.
Hawkins said the prosecution’s case left too many unanswered questions, reminding jurors of earlier testimony that 15 adults, six children and 26 medical personnel were around Angel from Nov. 6, 2009, to the time she was found not breathing.
Hawkins also said in his closing argument that Angel was found face down in a palette of pillows, with that circumstance and the lack of oxygen to the brain reported by doctors being consistent with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“These are doctors who disagree (about the cause of death),” Hawkins said. “I don’t know if it’s as cut and dried as Dr. Lewis wants to make it.”
Staples’ attorney, Dennie Hardin of Bowling Green, shed light during his closing argument on the fact that the majority of witnesses called by Coleman offered no testimony directly tying Staples to the allegations.
Hardin questioned the credibility of the testimony of Chad Raymond, who was a cellmate of Staples at the Butler County Jail for about a month this year.
Raymond testified during the trial that Staples told him he was rough with the baby and did not care about her, but Hardin had produced four other cellmates who claimed to have never heard Staples talk about his case. Hardin went on to mention Raymond’s status as a confidential informant who would not have been well-received by other inmates.
“In jail culture, a snitch in a jail cell is like a pervert in a park - it’s going to cause an alarm,” Hardin said.
Garcia faces a maximum of 30 years in prison if the jury recommends that she serve the maximum sentence on each count consecutively. Staples, who has a prior felony conviction, could see his sentence enhanced to life in prison on the manslaughter conviction and a maximum of 20 years for first-degree criminal abuse.
Update, 11/23: jury recommends 25 years for the man, and 15 years for the baby's mother.
Labels: Crime, Punishment
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 12:46 PM
2 Comments:
I have something to say about the things that I read in this article. I have somewhat of a personal connection to this case. Nicholis Staples is the father of both my children and we were together for several years. We had our fair share of ups and downs as a couple but he was always the best father that our children cud have asked for. He was never abusive to them. Those babies were his life. With that being said, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that I will ever believe Nick harmed that baby or had anything to do with her death!!!!!!!!!!
Do you think its because they where his children? Also I think that some of the harsh feelings for this child was (1) its wasn't his (2) She was willing to have a child at that time, so he was angry.. there's more to this ! I think more questions should have been asked by the prosecutor, but he's getting justice.
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