Parents Behaving Badly

A few quick updates on the case reported earlier…

Liz Carrol has been convicted and is expected to serve at least 54 years in prison.

Donna Trevino, the birth mother has said she is happy with the verdict and sentence.

Trevino has also filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Liz and David Carrol as well as the agency that placed her son with them. She also has two other children in foster care, which she is trying to get back.

30 year old foster mother, Liz Carroll, made plans to leave her 3-year old developmentally disabled boy alone, while she attends an out of state weekend family reunion with her husband David and their live-in companion Amy Baker. In a seriously major lapse of judgment they decided it best to wrap him in a blanket, bind him with packing tape and shove him in a closet.

The boy died that weekend.

In a desperate attempt to hide their mistakes, David Carroll, accompanied by Amy Baker, burned the body and proceeded to dump his remains into the Ohio River.

Amy Baker is not being charged in exchange for her testimony.

David Carroll is to be tried separately next month.

Though Liz Carroll was not convicted of murder, she has been convicted on seven counts including involuntary manslaughter, kidnapping, felonious assault and three counts of child endangerment by the Clermont County jury. She is currently being tried separately for a murder charge.

I only wish their cases were tried in Texas.

Eric T. Oakman, 31 of Wilmington, NC got eight to 10 years in the joint for shaking his infant son, Eric Jr. hard enough to cause brain damage and a broken wrist. Eric Jr. was only three months old when his father shook him. He’s now 11 months old and can’t sit up or hold a toy.

The defense blamed Eric Jr.’s other caregivers, and claimed the injuries could have happened when Eric Jr. fell off a bed while strapped in his car seat. However, doctors testified that the baby suffered hemorrhaging in both eyes and bleeding around the brain, trauma that is consistent with child abuse and shaken baby syndrome. Injuries like Eric Jr.’s aren’t accidental, they’re inflicted.

There was an interesting wrinkle in the case. Oakman was found guilty of one count of felony child abuse, but actually he was on trial for two counts of abuse. The presiding judge screwed up and forgot to submit the second count to the jury – whoops – but he doesn’t think fixing the mistake will make much of a difference in the dad’s jail term. Oakman was sentenced to 10 years in prison on one count. If he gets another 10-year sentence, he’ll probably serve it at the same time as the first.

Judges asleep at the wheel is one thing. But letting this guy out when he’s still young enough to make another baby to shake just stinks.

I’m always on the lookout for Colorado stories. But when the arresting officer is the dad of your son’s classmate? Well, let’s just say this is literally too close to home. Kelly Lynn McGrew, 36, was arrested by Dacono, Colo. police for supplying pot to her three teenage children and two of their friends. One of the children told a Frederick High School official that Kelly was sharing drugs with them.

Mom wasn’t the only one partying with the youngsters. The children’s father, Claude McGrew, 48, was smoking with them, too. Police have charged him on suspicion of misdemeanor drug use and child abuse. Kelly McGrew was arrested on five counts of misdemeanor child abuse and five felony counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She’s being held in the Weld County Jail. The kids ages 15, 16, and 17 were taken into protective custody by Weld County Social Services.

Colorado parents just love to get high with their kids and their friends. Last December, Suzanne Moore of Erie, Colo. got to two years in prison for giving marijuana to her teenage son and four other teenagers. Then there’s “Cool Mom” Silvia Johnson of Arvada, Colo. who got to 30 years in prison for contributing to the delinquency of minors, sexual assault, and violating a restraining order. Johnson, 41, held weekly parties and provided pot, meth and alcohol to eight boys. She had sex with five of them. It was such a big story that the Smoking Gun posted the affadavit, and newspapers as far away as Australia picked up on it.

I guess we’re called the Mile High state for a reason.

It may be a matter of “he said, she said” but the facts are that twin two-year-old sisters were horribly abused by one or more of their adult caregivers.

Calista Torres had bruises covering her forehead, stomach, back, inner thighs, knees, face, and bottom. A CAT scan revealed an acute and chronic hemorrhage to her head. Callista’s sister, Raquel Torres had healing fractures to her right forearm and a spiral fracture to the tibia of her left leg. Callista’s injuries required surgery to relieve the swelling in her brain.

Kirk Seevers who is charged with injuring to his 2-year-old stepdaughters is now pointing the finger at his wife, Brandy Lynn Seevers who’s facing the same charges. Brandy and her husband have been questioned twice by both Corpus Christi police and Child Protective Services. Brandy is sticking to her story.

Brandy told police she heard a “thump” from the baby room. When she went to check it out, she found her daughter, Callista, “unconscious, shaking on the floor and her eyes were back in her head.”

Kirk’s original story was that he saw Callista on the floor “breathing deep and wheezing.” When asked about the bruises covering Callista’s body, Brandy said that she “had not dropped any children” and Callista “bruised both her legs after getting them stuck in the corner of of the baby bed.”

While Brandy and Kirk’s stories were slightly different, neither admitted to causing the injuries. However, in the second interview, Kirk’s story completely changed. When asked who injured Callista, he said Brandy caused the injury. They were potty training the twins, and he watched Brandy pick Callista up in a rough manner. Then he saw Callista’s head hit the door frame of the bedroom, and described the force as enough to move her head backwards. When he went to check on Callista and saw her lying on the floor, he picked her up, and then took her to his wife. Brandy took the child to the hospital.

Kirk also said that he had witnessed Brandy assault the children in the past.

At the hospital, Brandy told the investigator that her daughters would not behave and were defiant. She went on to say that she felt helpless when the “girls would look at me with that face! I hate that face!”

Brandy was questioned after Kirk changed his story, and only minor details were different from her original story. She continued to deny injuring her twin daughters.

Brandy Seevers was convicted of abusing her seven-year-old daughter back in 2005 and is still on probation for that felony charge. She had received counseling and taken anger management classes following the 2005 abuse case and was cleared by Child Protective Services to take care of the twins. Kirk Seevers has a clean criminal record, and has never been part of a Child Protective Services investigation. The twins real father, Xavier Torres, has filed a lawsuit, asking for full custody of the girls. He and his ex-wife, Brandy Seevers share custody.

I haven’t had this much fun guessing who did it since the JonBenét Ramsey case. In both cases, my gut tells me it was mom who did it, while dad sat by and denied any abuse was going on. What do you think?