Prosecutor: Mom, not legal system, to blame in sons' deaths
BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio -- Three young boys died because their mother decided to suffocate them, not because children's services or the legal system somehow failed, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Brittany Pilkington, 23, is jailed on murder charges in all three deaths over the last 13 months, including a 3-month-old son who died Tuesday, less than a week after he was returned from protective custody on a judge's order. Pilkington called emergency services as her husband tried in vain to revive him at their home in Bellefontaine.
The mother confessed that she suffocated the boys because she wanted their father's attention for herself and her 3-year-old daughter, whom she described as her best friend, Logan County Prosecutor William Goslee said.
"Everybody that is involved in this is truly emotionally distraught -- including myself, quite honestly -- and it isn't because the system failed," Goslee said. "It's because this child is dead. This was not a foreseeable event."
Investigators believe each child was suffocated in his crib or bed, with his own comfort blanket, Goslee said.
The cause of the first death, of 3-month-old Niall Pilkington in July 2014, had not been clear, and was attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
After 4-year-old Gavin died in April, the couple's remaining children - their daughter Hailey and the newborn boy, Noah, were taken into custody with Logan County Children's Services pending an investigation.
Their mother's uncle, Joe Skaggs, was furious that Judge Dan Bratka ordered the surviving children returned to the couple.
A message left with the judge Wednesday by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.
"Why would you give them back after a little boy just died and when you're in the middle of an investigation?" Skaggs, standing in front of his niece's apartment, told The Columbus Dispatch on Tuesday.
During a custody hearing a week ago to determine whether Noah and Hailey should be returned from foster care to their parents, a court-appointed guardian, a Children Services caseworker, and a prosecutor argued against returning the children, reports the Columbus Dispatch.
Over three days of testimony, a detective, investigations supervisor, a nurse and a doctor all testified that the children appeared neglected and needed help, reports the paper.
But Goslee said Wednesday they didn't have any evidence of a crime in the earlier deaths, and no one could have predicted Pilkington would kill her remaining son.
The killings happened while her husband Joseph Pilkington, 43, was working a night shift job, and he is not a suspect, Police Chief Brandon Standley said.
No defense lawyer has been named for Brittany Pilkington, who hasn't appeared in court yet.
Goslee said she confessed while being questioned by investigators, who noticed she didn't react as they expected to her sons' deaths.