UPDATE 5/15/08 – David Cull’s wife Donna Marie Cull has been indicted on charges of reckless homicide and tampering with evidence in the death of Xavian Cull. Full update at the bottom of this article.

Campbellsburg, KY 2/16/08 – David Cull, 50, was high on pharmies Wednesday night. So when he sat down in his favorite chair and passed out, nobody thought too much about it. Until Thursday morning about 5:00, when it occurred to someone in the home that Cull’s grandson, two-month-old Xavian, had been awfully quiet all night. When David Cull got out of his chair, they found out why Xavian hadn’t cried.

David and Donna Marie Cull had custody of their grandchildren: Xavian and his 5-year-old half-sister. Xavian Cull was born with a heart valve defect in December 2007. He had two blood transfusions, spent his first eleven days in the neonatal ICU, and survived – only to be smothered by a grandfather too high to look where he was sitting.

Latasha McMorris may have found her soulmate. But also, who puts an infant with a heart defect in a recliner and leaves him there, and then doesn’t check on him all night? Sounds to me like Grandpa wasn’t the only high person in that house Wednesday night. And if these people have custody, then the children’s birth parents must be mind-boggling in their inability to safely care for their children.

David Cull got out of his chair at 5:00 a.m., but 911 wasn’t called until 7:30. Donna Cull says that it was another family member who woke up Grandpa, and she didn’t see the baby until later. “His lips were purple, and he had four purple stripes down the side of his face,” she said. “I blew in his face and he wouldn’t breathe. His hands were clenched, and he was cold.”

CPS removed the older child from the home and have placed her with relatives who, hopefully, are sober. David Cull was arrested on a charge of reckless homicide. He’s being held at the Carroll County Regional Detention Center with bond set at $5,000 cash or $10,000 property.

Thanks, nurseronda!

UPDATE 5/15/08 – Donna Marie Cull has been indicted on charges of reckless homicide and tampering with evidence in the death of her grandson, Xavian Cull. Police aren’t answering questions about why Donna Marie Cull was indicted or the evidence presented in the case, but I suspect it has to do with that time gap between the time she got up and found the baby and the time the police were called.

Naturally, Donna Marie has no earthly idea why anyone would charge her with anything. Of course.