Sarah Smith, Boyfriend Claim Ignorance, Not Malice, in Daughter’s Vodka Poisoning
When I was traveling once for business, I arranged for a limo service to take me from the airport to the conference I was attending. I arrived in Chicago at 8am, settled into the back seat of my ride, and poured myself some water from a decanter in the sidebar. “Um, sir,” the driver asked politely, “what are you doing?”
“Uhhh…getting a drink of water,” I replied nervously. I was 22, and green in business travel. Should I have tipped the driver before drinking? Were you not supposed to drink the water in Chicago?
He chuckled. “That’s not water, sir. That’s vodka.”
I sniffed it and, sure as shit, he was right. Being a virtual tea-totaler at the time, I didn’t drink anything until I got to the conference. But damn, it would have made the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America waaaaay more interesting.
Given that, I can almost believe 19-year-old Sarah Smith of Denver, Colorado, who claims that she had no idea her boyfriend’s “water bottle” contained vodka when she used it to mix her three-month-old daughter’s formula. Kristina Delaroche damn near died after spiking a blood alcohol content of .384, which is 20 Irishmen times the legal limit in Colorado. But it doesn’t add up. At the very best, boyfriend Ryan Delaroche (the baby’s father) sounds like a total, absolute, irresponsible dick. First off, who walks around – nay, DRIVES around – with a water bottle full of vodka?! He was in the store buying diapers, and mom and baby were in the car, when the incident happened. Second, police report that Superdick dropped the mom and baby off at the hospital and drove off. Way to represent, homes. Your child is potentially dying, and you leave to…what? Cover your ass? Dispense of the evidence? Your ass should have been in that hospital with them. There was nothing more important that you had to be doing at that moment. Nothing.
The El Paso Department of Human Services has custody of the girl while they sort this mess out. I’m not buying this was an “accident”. At best, it was gross negligence. What about you guys? Do you think this was an innocent mistake…or something more?
(Hat tip: Karen Rani)
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December 7th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Well we have here a mistake of fact. She believed she was mixing with water, but she was mixing with vodka. So are the possible criminal statutes she has violated general intent or specific intent crimes? If they’re specific intent, if she must have done X with the specific intent of poisoning a minor/baby/someone she had custody of, than any mistake of fact is exculpatory. If it’s general intent, i.e. “poisoning someone” with no intention required, then her mistake of fact must be both honest and reasonable to be exculpatory. Clearly, the author here is saying he does not find her mistake to be reasonable.
Under the Model Penal Code, her mistake has to negate her mens rea for the criminal act. So if the required mens rea is purpose for the crime she’s charged with, she’s not guilty because she did not purposefully use vodka. If it’s knowledge, she is not guilty because she didn’t know it was vokda. If it’s recklessness, the prosecutor has to prove that she knew of the risk that her boyfriend’s bottle would have something other than water in it and didn’t check and that not checking was inexcusable in light of the risks involved.
So even if you think her mistake was reckless, that’s not the end of the analysis to see if she did anything criminal.
December 7th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
For the sake of argument…
Maybe the girlfriend does not approve of his drinking so he does not disclose the fact that the water bottle is in fact filled with vodka (no doubt so he can drink & drive w/o being noticed). He picks up gf to take her to get diapers, baby starts crying while he is in the store and mom makes bottle with what she thinks is water. I usually agree with your blog, but in this case, I think it was truly unintentional. But that is only my opinion and lord knows I have been wrong about people before…
December 7th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
A semi-similar thing happened to my family.
My dad had gin in our fridge in a clear container that looked like a bottle of water, and my 7-year-old brother goes to get a drink of water and gets a big surprise — nothing happened, but the family got a good laugh out of it.
I think that the boyfriend had the vodka in the water bottle in case he was pulled over by police – I had police think a bottle of Arizona Iced Tea (green tea kind) was some kind of alcohol (so he got a little excited).
I am curious as to why the baby would drink somethng so nasty, and enough of it to kill her — that is strange. If the baby drank it because she is used to it, then that would be a problem.
If I was a baby I would be very upset if someone gave me vodka in my formula.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
The boyfriend clearly intended to fool others that the contents of this water bottle was water, when in fact it was vodka. Contrats, boyfriend, you tricked her alright. Or did you? She’s in the car with you all the time, right? Surely you’ve seen him poor the shit! Surely you notice that every time he sips his ‘water,’ his breathe suddenly smells like vodka!
I think she knew.
I think you’ve nailed it on the head, Joseph. I don’t like the smell of any strong alchohol, myself. Hey, let’s drink antiseptic! The baby had to be used to vodka, else they would have noticed the baby become very nauseous when it drank the vodka allegedly for the first time ever, or it would always behave as if drunk, poor balance, lethargic, bad head balance… it would look like Tay Sachs syndrome.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
And the dad gets the dick of the day award for just dropping them off and leaving mom there to face the music…what a piece of shit. In a baby that small, it probably wouldn’t take much to raise the BAC to that level…I hope she comes through without any long term damage…
December 7th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Remember–this is vodka and it was mixed with formula…and (not to be argumentative) the baby is 2 months old…how much balance would she have? I have 4 kids and remember that when my babes were hungry it would seem like they would at first drink quickly without taking a breath and that may have been enough to get her to that blood alcohol level. The news article says that mom mixed 3 ounces, but did not say whether or not baby drank it all or a small amount…
Again…I am giving mom the benefit of the doubt and I may be wrong………..you have some valid points though…you would think the gf would know the bf’s habits
December 7th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
I also am having a tough time deciding if it was intentional. I have known people who have tried to hide their drinking, especially vodka, by putting it in a sports bottle or water bottle.
Was she tested to see if she was impaired? Has it been determined it was his or does she know if that is his beverage of choice?
December 7th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
not necessarily. i lived with a vodka drinker. i never actually saw him drink (vodka straight from the bottle was his delivery system), and i could never smell it right away. an hour later, tho, when it would begin to be matabolized, then i could smell it.
December 8th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Just to add my own silly mistook-alcohol-for-water story, when I was about 15, I took a really big gulp of rubbing alcohol meant for my sister’s newly pierced ears, thinking it was water. GAAKHH.
It actually is easy to make such a mistake, and small babies can’t express things like “holy crap, Mom, what is this stuff?!!” very well. It might very well have been a mistake on Mom’s part. Boyfriend/Dad, however, is another matter altogether. The fact that he ditched them at the hospital practically screams guilty conscience. Let her off, send his ass to prison.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Maybe a dumb question here as I’m not all that familiar with vodka, but she would have had to pour it from the father’s water bottle into the baby’s bottle. Shouldn’t she have been able to smell it?
December 13th, 2006 at 7:33 am
Who mixes formula in the car? Unless travelling. If you plan so much as to bring formula and a bottle, why not water to mix it with?
If a baby doesn’t turn it’s head in disgust from drinking vodka, it probably is used to the taste… No?
December 13th, 2006 at 8:18 am
I don’t know if it was intentional for the mom, but the boyfriend seems like a real winner, let me tell ya.
On the one hand, I’m in agreement with many commenters the guy had his vodka in the water bottle in an attempt to hide it. From the police, his girlfriend or whoever, it doesn’t really matter. And I can’t believe he just LEFT them at the hospital…what a dick!
As far as the mom goes, I don’t know how she could not have smelled the alcohol. I know, everyone says vodka doesn’t have a smell or taste, but the fumes…makes me wonder. And why would she be feeding a baby that young in the car anyway…in her defense however, I would like to say that I have accidentally gave my son spoiled milk more than once, where I didn’t know until after he drank it! Of course that’s nothing like vodka laced formula, but for what it’s worth.
And being a mom myself, I have to agree that when young babies are fed, they tend to drink so fast I sincerely doubt they would be able to taste anything.
December 18th, 2006 at 12:57 am
The circumstances and who’s lying is not as important as the fact that these two jerks do not have the maturity to care for an infant. She needs to be put in a safe environment – but with our court system and Child “Protective” Services, they’ll eventually get the poor little thing back and she’ll grow up just like them, if she makes it through childhood.
December 24th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
I side with the mom, but the boyfriend is a jerk, I just don’t know if he could be charged.
He ran off afterwards, so I’ll gonna wager that the girlfriend was probably the primary caregiver, and with a babe in arms she would not have the attention to notice what her boyfriend is doing with his water bottle.
December 27th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
[...] Now where have we heard this one before? Oh right – it slightly mirrors the case of Sarah Smith, whose boyfriend Ryan Delaroche was hitting booze from a water bottle while driving. In that case, Smith unintentionally poisoned her baby when she used Ryan’s “water” to mix her daughter’s bottle. [...]
December 27th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
This is why WIC should not be giving away formula to these kinds of people. It is risky enough when intelligent people are mixing it, but people with low IQs cannot be trusted with something like this. if she were breastfeeding the child, this would of course never have happened. Even if she were totally wasted, only minute amounts of booze pass into breast milk. The real question is, how were they intending on taking care of a baby while wasted?
January 14th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Ahhh hahahaha. This is. This is kind of weird. Considering that Ryan is my … cousin. Second Cousin? No, cousin. Wow. I never thought that he’d get himself in a ditty like this. Anyway, stop bashing, please. It was a simple mistake, and there’s more to the story than newspapers can publish. Ryan drinks alcohol, and Sarah didn’t want him to drink anymore. I guess that Ryan tried to supress his taste for alcohol, but when he couldn’t, he began hiding it in different ways, shapes, and forms. In this case, his way of hiding it would be in a water bottle which is surely a great hiding place for the clear drink. Sarah accidentally used it — ACCIDENT! It was not negligence. This is all just a mixup . A horrible horrible mixup. They’re both good people. Now, i hope the baby is alright … i hope no longterm side effects harm her…
January 15th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Cousin or not, for him to leave the mother there to face the music is a bunch of bullsh*t. If you read my posts, I have said all along that I thought it was an honest mistake by the mother, but that YOUR COUSIN is a complete ass for leaving her to face the music…and blaming alcoholism is just what it sounds like…AN EXCUSE. And drinking and driving with your kid in the car…what a great guy. Dad of the Year. But don’t worry hon, it’s not your fault he’s an irresponsible schmuck…don’t get defensive.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:27 am
naked group of teen…
Value information about naked group of teen…
April 24th, 2007 at 9:24 am
I dont think this is the mother’s fault this time. yea vodka does have a smell to it but she was thinking it was water, not expecting booze. She probably made the bottle in a hurry because the baby was really hungry. As for the baby not realizing the formula was wrong and not wanting to drink it because of the taste, if a baby is hungry she’ll drink anything you give her. My baby once drank a whole bottle of spoiled formula and didnt make a face. For the record, the bottle was just made from a brand new can of concentrate so I didnt expect it to be spoiled and therfore didnt notice the nasty smell to it while making it.
July 21st, 2007 at 7:30 pm
First off, I am a mother of 2- a 21-month old and a 2-month old, so I am very used to making bottles and yes, it is very common to have to make bottles in a car and even feed them in a car. HOWEVER, I do not believe it was an accident and in no way am defending what she did. One thing I don’t understand, they said the family was “homeless” (Nancy Grace) but anyone can afford to buy a gallon of nursery or distilled water for a dollar or to boil tap water considering that is was you are supposed to always make bottles with (Dr’s even ask), so why was she using an OPENED BOTTLE OF DRINKING WATER to mix the formula with??? If she honestly didn’t know there was vodka in the bottle then how did she know how long that bottle had been sitting there unopened and who had drank out of it before she used it??? Third question, I know when my children burp after drinking formula it smells exactly like formula so how come she didn’t smell it when she BURPED the baby??? In the video she looked blowed in the creek and the dad never spoke-were they ever drug tested or had any blood drawn for analysis??? This shows exactly how sad of a world we live in today!!!