Grandmother of slain baby: My daughter's sentence isn't strong enough
SARASOTA, Fla. -- The mother of a Florida woman accused of failing to protect her slain infant son from abuse says her daughter's sentence isn't strong enough.
Sally Susino spoke tearfully in a central Florida courtroom Wednesday as her daughter Kristen Bury, 32, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. As a part of a plea deal with prosecutors, Bury pleaded no contest to aggravated manslaughter in the death of her nine-week-old son Chance, who was found buried in a remote, wooded area about 13 miles from her North Port home last October.
Bury's husband Joseph Walsh is accused of killing the child, and as a part of the plea deal, Bury will be required to testify against him when he stands trial on second-degree murder charges, reports CBS affiliate WINK.
Bury reportedly collapsed in tears as her mother told a judge that Bury made a conscious choice to "let my defenseless, tiny grandson Chance die a horrible death, choosing an abusive husband [and] drugs over the life of her own child."
Susino told the judge her daughter lacks the "mother's instinct to love and protect her young."
"Justice needs to be done, and we don't feel the sentence was strong enough," Susino told reporters after the court hearing, as her husband held up a photo of the child. "A mother is supposed to protect her child at all costs, and that wasn't done."
Chance was reported missing by his grandparents on Oct. 4, concerned that they hadn't seen the boy since Sept. 9. Investigators tracked the child's parents to Hardeeville, S.C., where police say they gave detectives conflicting stories -- that the little boy was OK; that he died in a car crash; and that they gave him away. A massive search was then launched for the child.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Bury later told investigators that the infant had died Sept. 16 at their North Port home. That morning, she said, she and Joseph Walsh, 36, got into an argument. Walsh, she said, began repeatedly hitting the child, at one point telling her he was going to bash the child's head into the ground, according to the affidavit.
According to the document, Bury told Walsh, "You are going to break his (expletive) neck." However, police say the woman didn't call 911 or attempt to prevent Walsh from hurting the boy.
Walsh, the boy's father, allegedly said Bury told him she didn't want to call dispatchers because she didn't want to lose both people she loved in the same day, according to the affidavit, which is partially redacted.
The child was placed in his crib after his death and left to decompose, according to the document. Bury allegedly told Walsh that the smell was overwhelming and he had to do something with the body. Walsh then allegedly wrapped the infant's decomposing remains in numerous garbage bags and placed him in the closet of the bedroom.
On Sept. 25, the two allegedly dug a shallow grave, and later brought the child's body there in their car and buried him. The two then drove to South Carolina on Sept. 27 and were involved in a car crash in Hardeeville. When asked why they left Florida, Walsh allegedly said they were going to start a new life somewhere else.
Before Chance's death, Florida's Department of Children and Families had an extensive history with the family, the department's secretary Mike Carroll testified Oct. 22 before the Florida Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs. Bury, he said, had another child as a young woman in 2003, but gave the infant up for adoption after the state opened an investigation.
In 2014, he said, Bury had another child who died of natural causes. The state launched a child death investigation in that case but determined the cause of death was a kidney infection related to a urinary tract infection and no medical neglect was suspected.
According to Carroll, Walsh had a history with the department, as well. Between 2003 and 2008, he said, Walsh had three biological children he fathered with another woman removed from his custody, along with four stepchildren. According to WINK, he's faced accusations of assault in the past, and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2006 after he allegedly lunged at his mother-in-law with a kitchen knife.
The department didn't have any open investigations on baby Chance, Carroll said. However, on July 28, the day after Chance was born, the state's child abuse hotline received a tip from an anonymous caller who said she believed Bury was on drugs and feared for the boy's life.
"I mean, these people are not stable," the caller said, according to a recording obtained by CBS affiliate WTSP."They shouldn't have a child. They shouldn't even be letting the child go home with them."
The hotline operator told the caller she didn't have first-hand information and called the allegations "rumors."
"What I'm mainly concerned about is that child," the caller said. "I don't want the child to come home and then I hear about it through the grapevine three weeks from now that the child passed away."
Nine weeks later, the boy was dead.
According to a state review of the hotline call, the hotline operator made a mistake and should have referred the call to an investigator because the caller alleged a parent was using drugs. Carroll said although the caller's allegations were mostly "hearsay," the call should have resulted in someone going to the hospital to check on mother and baby.
In court, Bury's stepfather, John Murawski, called Bury a "monster," and said the child and his parents "slipped through society's cracks."
Susino encouraged anyone who suspects a child is being abused to step forward.
"There's nothing wrong with standing up and calling someone and letting someone know," Susino told reporters. "Do something about it, don't just stand by. We did the best we could. We don't want anyone ever to have to go through this."