A Tulsa woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for neglect after she gave birth prematurely at home while on drugs, claimed her baby was an alien and was found swinging the placenta around by paramedics.
Candace Marie Stanley, 23, pleaded guilty on Monday to the neglect charge, which said she had exposed her newborn boy to drugs including Xanax, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin.
She also admitted to not providing the first aid care demanded by a 911 dispatcher, instead placing the child on a pile of trash in her apartment and playing with the placenta,
Tulsa World reported.
Paramedics were called to Stanley's apartment on December 16, 2014, in what was at that point an 'unknown medical emergency.'
An earlier
report by Tulsa World said that Stanley had made 'intermittent' calls to 911 in which she had described a 'baby or alien' in her apartment.
When they arrived, they found Stanley naked and bleeding on a couch, 'swinging the placenta,' while the baby lay on a pile of trash nearby, according to Emily O’Banion, a critical care paramedic with EMSA.
O'Banion told the court in March 2015 that the apartment was a filthy 'drug hovel,' and that she found the baby - who was turning blue and not moving or breathing - on top of a container full of trash.
She told Stanley to hold the baby to her for the warmth that was needed to resuscitate him, but Stanley refused.
The baby, who was born at 36 weeks - making him premature by one week - was taken to hospital, where he underwent life-saving operations, including a heart-lung bypass operation due to lack of oxygen.
He also tested positive for methamphetamine, marijuana and Xanax. Stanley herself tested positive for amphetamines, according to the court affidavit.
While in hospital, Stanley told the medical team she had used meth and marijuana while pregnant and received little natal care. She also admitted to being a heroin addict.
Hospital staff later told police she thought they were vampires trying to 'get her.'
In his closing argument Stanley's lawyer, M.J. Denman, told the judge that his client was a victim of a long-term habit, having begun using drugs at 13.
But Assistant District Attorney Andrea Brown said that despite previous jail sentences and treatments, Stanley has repeatedly gone back to drugs - and even admitted to smoking meth in Tulsa Jail while awaiting trial.
She also said that Stanley had also exposed her previous newborn - over whom she no longer has custody - to drugs.
The child in this case, now 17 months old, will never be able to fully use one side of his body due to damage he sustained, the court heard in a victim impact statement written by the woman who is caring for him. Denman said there was no medical evidence proving that was caused by drug use.
Read out to the court by Brown, the statement from the carer said that the child was now happy - but that she dreads the day that he discovers the circumstances surrounding his birth.
Stanley began to cry when that last part was read out, Tulsa World reported.
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Tulsa County District Judge William LaFortune said that Stanley must serve one year of her 15-year sentence before he will consider reducing it.