Lawyer: Caring mom would never force feed salt to 5-year-old
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A 5-year-old boy whose mother is charged with feeding him a fatal amount of salt through a stomach tube had a high sodium level because he was given a salty IV fluid by medical workers, the woman's attorney argued Thursday.
Defense lawyer Stephen Riebling said in his summation Garnett-Paul Spears was allowed to become dehydrated before he received the IV. Riebling also tried to cast doubt on the medical examiner's finding that high salt was the cause of death.
Lacey Spears, 27, of Scottsville, Kentucky, is being tried in New York on charges of depraved murder and manslaughter. Riebling said the prosecution's failure to allege a motive "offends our senses."
The prosecution says Spears induced brain swelling and death by feeding Garnett heavy concentrations of sodium through a stomach tube. Jurors saw a video that showed Spears taking her son into a hospital bathroom with a connector tube and the boy suffering afterward.
A feeding bag found in Spears' apartment had the equivalent of 69 McDonald's salt packets in it, a forensic toxicologist testified.
Spears, depicted by the prosecution as unemotional, wept at times as her lawyer spoke.
"She loves her son very much. She cared deeply if he lived or died," said Riebling, who added that Spears collapsed when she learned of her child's death, and did Internet searches about how to commit suicide with insulin.
When edited-out scenes of hospital video are restored, it "paints a completely different picture" than the prosecution's, he said.
Missing scenes show Spears putting two pairs of socks on Garnett. "If she's planning on killing him, why does she care whether his feet are cold?"
Hospital charts and video show a nurse failed to replace "the necessary maintenance fluids" that were being given to Garnett to keep him hydrated during bouts of diarrhea, Riebling said, adding that a doctor testified that water loss and no replacement fluids can lead to the high salt levels.
Later, Garnett was given a rapid infusion of fluids. The makeup of the fluids is not known, but it was reasonable to conclude that it had too much sodium, he said.
The fluid was changed when "they realized he was getting a fluid high in sodium chloride," Riebling said. "At the very least it's reasonable doubt."
A call to Nyack Hospital spokeswoman Lauren Malone requesting comment was not immediately returned.
Doctors testified that a child fed in an ordinary fashion would spit out that much salt. But Garnett had a feeding tube because his mother told doctors he could not keep food down otherwise.
Prosecutors said Spears, who documented her son's hospital and doctor visits on social media, claimed the boy had illnesses he did not have.
A friend told the jurors that after Garnett died, Spears asked her "to go to her house and get a feeding bag in the middle of the room and throw it away and not tell anybody." Riebling said the chain of custody couldn't be trusted and the bag could have been tampered with.
The Spearses lived in Chestnut Ridge, a suburb north of New York City, at the time of Garnett's death. Lacey Spears, an Alabama native, moved to Kentucky afterward and was living there when she was arrested.