South Carolina mom gets no prison for leaving baby in toilet

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/sc-mom-gets-no-prison-leaving-baby-toilet-233006461.html

By By JEFFREY COLLINS | Associated Press – Wed, Dec 12, 2012

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina judge decided against prison time for a woman who left her newborn near death in the toilet of a sports arena after giving birth during the circus.

Jessica Blackham was sentenced to a year of home confinement and three years of probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to infliction of great bodily injury to a child.

The 6½-pound newborn baby was likely in the toilet for 90 minutes and was near death before he was found by a cleaning crew in the stall filled with blood and other gore. His head was barely above the water and his body temperature was 85 degrees, prosecutor Betty Strom said.

Blackham, who has an older daughter, said she never knew she was pregnant for a second time. She said she doesn't remember giving birth in the cramped stall while her friends and family texted to see if she was OK as she missed the second act of the circus in February 2011.

Blackham brought her 4-year-old daughter to the stall with her, but texted her family to take the girl from the bathroom because she was having stomach problems, Strom said.

Judge Ned Miller asked the 26-year-old mother, who had no prior criminal record, why she never asked for help.

"I don't know. The only thing I can think of is I didn't realize what was going on or because of my loss of blood I wasn't thinking clearly," said Blackham, who added she was told in the hospital she nearly died from the blood loss from injuries she suffered giving birth.

Blackham graduated from a private Baptist high school and had a job at Kmart before her arrest.

She went to a doctor the next day because she was heavily bleeding.

Miller, who took time out from hearing guilty pleas in crack cocaine and methamphetamine cases to hear Blackham's plea, took about 90 seconds to consider his sentence.

"Miss Blackham, you are not standard fare up here and I think your attorney's assessment that you will not be back is accurate," Miller said.

Prosecutors made no recommendation for a sentence to the judge. Blackham faced up to 20 years in prison.

Blackham was given a five-year prison sentence, but she won't serve it as long as she successfully completes her home confinement and probation. She also was ordered to get counseling and face random drug tests.

The baby is developing normally and Blackham gave up her parental rights to him, authorities said. She has joint custody of her older daughter.

South Carolina has a "safe haven" law that allows mothers to leave newborns in safe places such as a hospital or doctor's office without being prosecuted.

Blackham apologized before she was sentenced.

"I love my son dearly. And it kills me to know in the first few crucial moments of his life I was unable to provide him with the care that he needed," Blackham said. "I thank God somebody was there to save him, save his precious life."

Edited December 14, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Sounds like a light sentence for attempted murder.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.journalwatchdog.com/crime/992-why

Why would a mother leave her newborn son in a public restroom?

By Cindy Landrum

FEBRUARY 10, 2011 12:35 p.m

As a student at Bob Jones Academy, Jessie Blackham talked about how much she loved kids. She told stories about her niece and carried pictures of the girl in her wallet.

Now 24, Blackham has been charged with felony child abuse after giving birth to a boy at the Bi-Lo Center last Friday night and leaving him in the toilet.

“I’m shocked that she would do that. She was always very good with children,” said Taryn Habegger, a classmate of Blackham’s throughout elementary and high school who has kept up with her on Facebook. “I’m shocked that anybody would do that.”

Blackham, of 529 Odom Road, Easley, is charged with felony child abuse and unlawful neglect of a child, which carries a 30-year prison sentence if convicted.

She was released from the Greenville County Detention Center Wednesday afternoon on $30,000 bond set at a hearing earlier in the day.

Dressed in an orange Greenville County Detention Center jumpsuit and shackled, Blackham answered Judge Matt Hawley with yeses and nos. When the questions required a longer answer, she answered in as few words as possible in a hushed monotone voice that was sometimes barely audible from the audience.

During the short hearing, her mother stood at her side, arm around her waist. After she was granted bond, she and her mother had a long embrace before she walked out of the courtroom, a police officer trailing just behind her.

Greenville Police Detective Tim Conroy said Blackham attended the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus last Friday night at the Bi-Lo Center with her boyfriend, her sister, her sister’s children and her sister’s husband. She went to the restroom because she was not feeling well.“She doesn’t remember anything after that,” the detective said.

Blackham’s mother told the judge her daughter showed no signs of being pregnant.

“She’s had periods,” said the mother, who did not give her name in court.

Looked the same

Blackham’s father, who also wasn’t identified by name, said the family has photographs of Blackham from 2008 through January and she looked the same.

“Nobody knew,” he said.

The baby weighed about six pounds and was nearly full term. His condition improves every day, Conroy said.

Blackham said her husband did not father the newborn. The Blackhams separated about a year ago after five years of marriage and Jessica Blackham has been living with her sister. The Blackhams have a four-year-old daughter.

When Hawley asked if she knew who the father was, Blackham answered, “I have an idea.”

Hawley told her the Department of Social Services needed to know that information because the man could have an interest in the child, who remains hospitalized and in the temporary custody of DSS.

Blackham’s mother told the judge Blackham’s husband was deployed in Iraq for a year and came home changed.

In an interview with WYFF, Thomas Blackham denied abusing his wife, who he considers “mentally wrong.” Blackham told the television station his wife believed aliens told her what to do. She left him in May after he returned from Iraq and refused to let him see their daughter, Katelyn.

Jessica Blackham’s mother told the judge her daughter voluntarily sought medical attention at St. Francis Eastside because she was bleeding. Her daughter was at home but had amnesia and didn’t know what happened, the mother said.

“We needed to find out what happened,” the mother said.

Jessica Blackham went straight to the Law Enforcement Center Tuesday afternoon after being discharged from the hospital.

Greenville Police Chief Terri Wilfong said the family had been cooperating with investigators since Saturday.

Blackham had no prior criminal record, Wilfong said.

Blackham graduated from Bob Jones Academy in 2004 and worked for the past year at the K-Mart in Easley.

The rescue

Two Bi-Lo Center employees cleaning after the circus plucked the newborn from the toilet’s cold water around 11:30 p.m.

Bi-Lo Center housekeeping manager Eder Serrano said, “It sounded like a cat, but you had to be real close to hear it.”

When he opened the door to the fourth stall, he couldn’t believe what he saw – a newborn baby, facing the wall, not moving, feet in the toilet water, blood everywhere.

He passed out for a few seconds.

Marco Calle, the Bi-Lo Center’s cleaning supervisor, pulled the baby out.

“I didn’t think,” he said. “I just tried to help him.”

The baby moved.

“I forgot everything,” he said. “I grabbed him.”

The placenta and umbilical cord were still attached.

Calle, who had been in the labor room when his first son was born 15 years ago, placed the infant on the baby-changing table.

Serrano called 911 and relayed instructions from the emergency medical services dispatcher.

Calle cleaned out the infant’s nose. He put his finger in the baby’s mouth, trying to remove whatever was causing the baby to not be able to breathe.

“He started crying then,” Calle said.

He wrapped the baby in a towel and tried to gently wash his face with warm water. The dispatcher told him to tie off the umbilical cord 6-inches from the baby’s belly button.

“His hands were shaking,” Serrano said.

The whole time he was helping the baby, Calle said he talked to the newborn in Spanish. “You’ll be OK, baby. You’re going to be OK.”

Serrano said he wasn’t supposed to be working that late on Friday night, but Calle called and told him they may not have enough crewmembers. The baby was discovered just as Serrano started to leave the building.

“I think God knows everything,” Serrano said. “I think we were in the right place. I think we make a good team. The only thing we were thinking was to save the baby.

A future president?

Calle said he’s thought about the baby every day since he pulled him out of the toilet.

“He was very beautiful,” he said.

Calle said he wants to visit the baby in the hospital. “I want to see him to be sure he’s OK,” he said.

Serrano said he’s happy the baby will be OK. “Maybe he’ll be a senator for South Carolina or president. You don’t know,” he said.

Both men said they don’t have bad thoughts about Blackham.

“I feel compassion for the baby and then compassion for the mother,” Serrano said. “I don’t know what situation made her do this. We’ll never know. The authorities and God are the only ones who can do justice.”

“The important thing is the baby’s alive,” Calle said.

Roger Newton, president and general manager of the Bi-Lo Center, said the arena has a plan to deal with all types of emergencies, but the discovery of an infant in a toilet isn’t one of them.

“This is not in the playbook,” he said. “We’ve had some unfortunate situations in the past, but nothing like this.”

Newton said Serrano and Calle’s actions were “quick, decisive and proper.”

“From our perspective, they’re heroes,” Newton said.

“Those workers saved that baby’s life,” said Wilfong.

Another choice

Wilfong said Blackham could have given the newborn to a paramedic working at the Bi-Lo Center during the circus and walked away free and clear under “Daniel’s Law.”

Daniel’s Law was passed in 2000 and allows parents to leave newborns less than 30 days old at fire departments, police departments, medical facilities or churches that are staffed at the time without being subject to prosecution.

DSS says 11 babies have been abandoned or released by their parents since 2006.

Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins pledged to prosecute the case vigorously.

He said he hopes others who find themselves in the same situation of an unwanted pregnancy would seek a safe haven under Daniel’s Law.

“It’s a free pass,” he said.

Wilkins said he could not seek an attempted murder charge with the evidence he has now.

To prosecute for attempted murder, prosecutors must prove the person “had a depraved heart.” Wilkins said he would have to prove Blackham intended to kill the child.

“In this case, we have evidence she intended to abandon the baby,” he said. “The distinction may be slight, but legally, it’s a big distinction.”

Edited December 14, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[james&olya 1,121]

It may seem hard to believe but it does happen that sane, reasonably intelligent women can go into labor and deliver full-term infants never having realized they were pregnant. It also happens that the possible blood loss associated with childbirth in addition to the pain and other factors could very well have rendered this mother incapable of having the mental faculties required to be aware of what had happened and to respond appropriately. Decent legal representation should have resulted in charges being dismissed unless there is something substantial that did not make it into these news stories!

Yes, I have seen all of this before, including the infant left in the toilet after the mother delivering at home! NOT the ideal way to begin life!

[SMR 368]

Is it really possible for a woman to have periods while pregnant? I've heard of implantation bleeding but that would happen only once near the beginning of the pregnancy. After that, I don't understand how she could have 'periods.'

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Is it really possible for a woman to have periods while pregnant? I've heard of implantation bleeding but that would happen only once near the beginning of the pregnancy. After that, I don't understand how she could have 'periods.'

I've heard of quite a few women who had bleeding throughout their pregnancies. If they hadn't known they were pregnant, they likely would have assumed it was an irregular period.

So basically, you can have bleeding that is similar in symptoms TO a period, but it technically isn't one, obviously. Vaginal bleeding, not menstruation.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Evylin

[decocker 7,198]

i think too, when this genuinely happens, its a psychological thing. it's very rare, a special sort of dissociative disorder. when i was eighteen, a girl i knew ended up almost giving birth on the side of the road as she was driving herself to school. she had developed preeclampsia and had blacked out. next thing she knows she's in the hospital and has a son. granted, this girl was pretty heavy so no one close to her knew. she had been taking her birth control the entire pregnancy.

[aaydrian 479]

I think this woman either didn't know she was pregnant, gave birth in the toilet and intentionally didn't try to save the child or she knew she was pregnant, refused to acknowledge the pregnancy and so carried on 'normally' until when in child birth she really felt she didn't know what was going on. The latter possibility seems more the right one considering the baby may have been conceived when her husband was deployed, the baby isn't her husband's, this woman and her husband are currently separated, the mother doesn't want to name the father of the child and sorry to say she works at Kmart. All these factors doen't make this the ideal situation or time to have another child so the mother conveniently has no recollection of giving birth or seeing a baby in the toilet. So there the baby stayed until he was discovered and hospitalized. And even after being informed she has a kid, the mother appears to want nothing to do with her baby since he is up for adoption.

Question, if this lady is completely innocent in regards to the law why must she be randomly drug tested? Is this a necessity of the crime she was convicted of?

[JensJrny2Ray 367]

And Obamacare wants to give FREE birth control to women!? Not with MY tax dollars!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

And Obamacare wants to give FREE birth control to women!? Not with MY tax dollars!

What does that have to do with a women intentionally leaving her child in a toilette to drown? And unless the price of birth control suddenly went through the roof last nigh unannounced that one doesn't fly. This gal should be doing some prison time.

[decocker 7,198]

What does that have to do with a women intentionally leaving her child in a toilette to drown?

Didn't the judge look at the evidence and determine that the intent wasn't there? do you have some information that the judge didn't have?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Didn't the judge look at the evidence and determine that the intent wasn't there? do you have some information that the judge didn't have?

The judge found her guilty of inflicting great bodily harm to a child and sentenced her to five years probation instead of giving her any time in the joint for the fact she didn't have any priors. He was lenient to say the least.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[decocker 7,198]

The judge found her guilty of inflicting great bodily harm to a child and sentenced her to five years probation instead of giving her any time in the joint for the fact she didn't have any priors. He was lenient to say the least.

he was lenient because he couldn't prove intent, correct? are you saying that the harshest sentences should be given in all instances, even when intent can't be proven?