They killed their baby trying to calm their screams with ethanol. The parents of Braxton County, near Charleston in Virginia-Western (Northeast of the United States), are suspected of murder and negligence of the parents after having “involuntarily” killed their 4-month-old daughter in November 2024, reports several local media, including the Wboy, a subsidiary of NBC and ABC.
After a complaint filed by the Braxton County Police, the local authorities went to the hospital and met with the coroner to examine the baby’s body. The elected officials present said that “the baby’s face was faded as if the baby had been on the ground.”
“The boy did not breathe”
According to the authorities, James Smith, 34, and Angel Talbert, 23, both from Gassaway, would have awakened between four hours and five in the morning of the incident to verify the baby’s state.
The father asked his wife to call 911 while a cardiac massage began. Then he said that “the child did not breathe” and that “she was on the floor.” Subsequently, the baby was placed in an ambulance, to relive it, but it was too late.
After this drama, the researchers discovered that family’s living conditions were “very bad”, with “cockroaches that crawled into several places” and “the absence of running water in the kitchen and bathroom.”
In a room there was also “what seemed to be a smoking device” that Smith said “used to smoke THC,” according to the complaint.
“3.21 grams of ethanol per liter of blood”
During the autopsy, doctors revealed that the baby’s liver contained ethanol with a value of 3.21 per liter of blood, which “would be fatal in a baby.”
When asked about her act, the mother told the authorities that her husband “took alcohol and he rubbed the gums and around his mouth when the baby became irritable and difficult.” The family’s father admitted that they made the same gestures as the mother “almost every day for a month before the baby’s death.”
While waiting for their sentence, Lamère and the father were accused of negligence towards a child who caused death, for murder in the first and second degree and conspiracy. They are arrested in the regional prison of the center without bail.
Source: BFM TV
