BALTIMORE, Md. - Vernice Harris is a considerate party hostess, right down to the important details that make any gathering the social event of the crackhouse weekend. If you’re trying to get high at her place, she’ll share her methadone. And if her kid gets too loud, she’ll take care of that, too. Just ignore the cockroaches in the fridge.

Harris, 29, thought it would be a great idea to feed her two-year-old daughter Bryanna some cereal and Kool-Aid before bedtime last June 5, when she had some friends over to get high. For dessert, Bryanna got some methadone to keep her quiet. Oh, and a good hard punch to the stomach. After which Bryanna didn’t make any noise at all.

Naturally, Bryanna’s death occurred on Social Services watch. They’d already removed two children from Vernice, and had been investigating an April 17 report of neglect regarding Bryanna. So Vernice thought, hell, she’d throw a party. Because that’s what you do when someone is threatening to take your child away.

But Bryanna just wouldn’t be quiet. Damn kids, learning to talk, asking to be fed or hugged or to have the cockroach removed from the Froot Loops. So Vernice did what any child-beating bitch worth her salt would do: she overdosed her toddler on methadone so Bryanna wouldn’t disturb her drug-using friends. And then she followed up the dosage with what was probably the soap-in-a-sock pimp trick, because while there were no visible signs of trauma to little Bryanna, autopsy showed her stomach had burst. Cause of death was blunt force abdominal trauma and respiratory arrest caused by the methadone overdose.

Why it took seven months to charge this heinous bitch is beyond me, but whatever, just so Vernice gets a very long sentence. Preferably punctuated with regular soap-in-a-sock beatings. I gotta find a picture – I bet Vernice makes Kumari Fulbright look sweet and undemanding by comparison.

PS – If this post sucks, it’s Morbid’s fault.

UPDATE 4/24/08 -  Vernice Harris pled guilty on April 22 to voluntary manslaughter in a plea deal.  Her ten-year sentence was suspended and she has been ordered to five years of probation and mental health treatment. She will stay in jail until a space in a mental health treatment facility becomes available.  Harris’ attorney argued that the blow to Bryanna’s stomach was not fatal, and that the methadone was given to Bryanna by someone other than Harris.

Harris’ response to her sentence was to say that she had been told she would receive three years of probation instead of five, and that she  “thought (she) was leaving jail today.”  Yeah, well, I bet Bryanna thought she would live to be three, too.

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