Wicked Doll
April 25th, 2009, 02:51 AM
Police were called to a Garden City home Monday night to check on an injured baby, but after arriving on scene it quickly turned into a criminal investigation.
On Tuesday, Kody Smith was arraigned on charges that he shook the baby nearly to death.
"Mr. Smith, I have here before me a statement of rights form with your signature on it. Did you understand those rights," asked Judge Kevin Swain during Tuesday's arraignment.
"Yeah," replied Smith.
Eighteen-year-old Smith is facing an injury to child charge after police determined that he shook a 10-month-old baby -- a child he was supposedly babysitting.
"When paramedics were called to the scene they notice that her eye socket was basically blown. And at this time she is in intensive care, she has no brain activity, no response to pain medication, part of her skull has been removed," said Cathy Guzman, Ada County deputy prosecutor.
It all supposedly occurred at a Garden City home on the 5600 block of Millstream Street.
A neighbor living across the street, McKala Garza, says she believes Smith is actually the baby's mother's boyfriend.
"He just comes and goes pretty frequently. It seems like he's here more than not. They're together a lot," she said.
In fact they were also together during police questioning Monday night.
During a probable cause hearing, a prosecutor told the judge that Smith began telling police he was playing with the child, spinning her around like an airplane -- that's when the accident occurred.
"After further questioning he stated that she struck her head on an armoire in the front room as he was spinning her around. And then he dropped her on the floor," said an unknown deputy prosecutor during the probable cause hearing.
But after checking on the child, police and paramedics realized the injuries were not from an accident while playing but were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
"Internal injuries you receive from a case like this, you look for more eye injuries, trauma to the eyes. You can't necessarily see swelling in the head so you look at the eyes to determine," explained Sgt. Cris Anjelkovich from the Garden City Police Department.
And since the baby's eyes told a story of being shaken, that's when police went back to work on Smith, and soon received a possible confession.
"During further questioning he finally admitted that he had gotten frustrated with L.S. (baby's initials) and shaken her from side to side without supporting her head. He knew that he had hurt her, but he was scared so he did not call for help," explained the deputy prosecutor, again from the probable cause hearing.
Again, the baby is in critical condition at St. Alphonsus Medical Center.
Smith will remain in the Ada County Jail for now on a $250,000 bond.
Incidentally, this is not his first run-in with the law. He has a criminal past involving domestic assault, failure to appear and violation of a no contact order.
http://www.fox12idaho.com/Global/story.asp?S=10025430
Next week, Garden City baby Lily Smith will turn one-year-old -- quite a milestone when you consider this: a month ago, doctors thought she would die.:birthday:
Lily is the apparent victim of shaken baby syndrome.
The teenager accused of doing the damage is behind bars.
"They said she wasn't going to live. She had a 95 percent chance of not living," said Breonna Smith, Lily's mom.
"It was devastating, it was horrific. We called everybody we knew and asked them to call everyone they know and pray," said Tracy Bean, Lily's grandmother.
What happened to baby Lily? Eighteen-year-old Kody Smith may be the only one with an answer. Last week, a grand jury indicted him on charges of aggravated battery and injury to a child.
He was the boyfriend of 16-year-old Breonna Smith. Late for school, last month, she asked him to babysit her little girl.
When she returned home two hours later -- all of their lives would be drastically altered.
"I thought she was sleeping, but after I realized she'd been sleeping too long I went to pick her up and I couldn't wake her up and I asked him 'did anything happen while I was gone?' He said, 'no,'" said Breonna. "She was like this and her legs were pointed like that."
"It was extreme!" said Tracy Bean.
"I couldn't get her to move at all," said Breonna. "When the ambulance got here, they told me she was having a seizure, when she got into the hospital she was having a coma and she was probably going to die, she had a 5 percent chance of living."
The diagnosis? Shaken Baby Syndrome -- a traumatic brain injury that happens when a baby is violently shaken. The ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation says a fourth of all shaken babies die from this condition. That's nearly 1,500 child fatalities every year.
Lily would not be one of those statistics, but initially the prognosis was still grim.
"It's the longest wait of my life. You're sitting there in the waiting room and all you can do is wait for someone to tell you your child has either died or lived," said Breonna.
"When he said she would live, he said, more than likely she would be in a vegetative state, that was about all we could hope for," said Tracy Bean, Lily's Grandmother.
Lily was in St. Luke's Hospital for four weeks. The swelling in her brain forced two surgeries. But she would be one of the lucky ones.
"We started with no hope. Each step of the way it was about finding a little bit more hope," said Tracy Bean.
Just in time for her first birthday, Lily was released from the hospital.
She is a happy little girl who learned to say "hi" from all the visits she received at the hospital.
"Everybody's called her a miracle. A miracle baby. She wasn't supposed to ever come near to what she is today and we're just so grateful," said Tracy Bean.
But Lily is blind and suffering from paralysis on the left side of her body. Prosecutors say Kody Smith admitted injuring the little girl, putting her to bed and neglecting to seek medical attention. An avoidable tragedy, according to Lily's family and one they now want to prevent others from suffering.
“I just wanted to take her story and help it bring awareness to taking the time to say something to somebody that has your child, hey if she gets frustrated, or you get frustrated with her, put her down...walk away," said Tracy Bean. "No matter what happens, we're all different now. We're all different people than we were five weeks ago. We still have great hope that she's going to see again, that she's going to have a full or complete life in every aspect, but if she doesn't get all the way there, we'll give her the best life we have to give her."
Kody Smith is scheduled to enter a plea in court on Monday.
We asked his mother and his attorney for an interview or a comment on the case, but they both declined.
http://www.ktvb.com/news/health/stories/ktvbn-apr2409-shaken_baby.1082f99c1.html
Video at this link. Interview with mother and update on Lily.
On Tuesday, Kody Smith was arraigned on charges that he shook the baby nearly to death.
"Mr. Smith, I have here before me a statement of rights form with your signature on it. Did you understand those rights," asked Judge Kevin Swain during Tuesday's arraignment.
"Yeah," replied Smith.
Eighteen-year-old Smith is facing an injury to child charge after police determined that he shook a 10-month-old baby -- a child he was supposedly babysitting.
"When paramedics were called to the scene they notice that her eye socket was basically blown. And at this time she is in intensive care, she has no brain activity, no response to pain medication, part of her skull has been removed," said Cathy Guzman, Ada County deputy prosecutor.
It all supposedly occurred at a Garden City home on the 5600 block of Millstream Street.
A neighbor living across the street, McKala Garza, says she believes Smith is actually the baby's mother's boyfriend.
"He just comes and goes pretty frequently. It seems like he's here more than not. They're together a lot," she said.
In fact they were also together during police questioning Monday night.
During a probable cause hearing, a prosecutor told the judge that Smith began telling police he was playing with the child, spinning her around like an airplane -- that's when the accident occurred.
"After further questioning he stated that she struck her head on an armoire in the front room as he was spinning her around. And then he dropped her on the floor," said an unknown deputy prosecutor during the probable cause hearing.
But after checking on the child, police and paramedics realized the injuries were not from an accident while playing but were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
"Internal injuries you receive from a case like this, you look for more eye injuries, trauma to the eyes. You can't necessarily see swelling in the head so you look at the eyes to determine," explained Sgt. Cris Anjelkovich from the Garden City Police Department.
And since the baby's eyes told a story of being shaken, that's when police went back to work on Smith, and soon received a possible confession.
"During further questioning he finally admitted that he had gotten frustrated with L.S. (baby's initials) and shaken her from side to side without supporting her head. He knew that he had hurt her, but he was scared so he did not call for help," explained the deputy prosecutor, again from the probable cause hearing.
Again, the baby is in critical condition at St. Alphonsus Medical Center.
Smith will remain in the Ada County Jail for now on a $250,000 bond.
Incidentally, this is not his first run-in with the law. He has a criminal past involving domestic assault, failure to appear and violation of a no contact order.
http://www.fox12idaho.com/Global/story.asp?S=10025430
Next week, Garden City baby Lily Smith will turn one-year-old -- quite a milestone when you consider this: a month ago, doctors thought she would die.:birthday:
Lily is the apparent victim of shaken baby syndrome.
The teenager accused of doing the damage is behind bars.
"They said she wasn't going to live. She had a 95 percent chance of not living," said Breonna Smith, Lily's mom.
"It was devastating, it was horrific. We called everybody we knew and asked them to call everyone they know and pray," said Tracy Bean, Lily's grandmother.
What happened to baby Lily? Eighteen-year-old Kody Smith may be the only one with an answer. Last week, a grand jury indicted him on charges of aggravated battery and injury to a child.
He was the boyfriend of 16-year-old Breonna Smith. Late for school, last month, she asked him to babysit her little girl.
When she returned home two hours later -- all of their lives would be drastically altered.
"I thought she was sleeping, but after I realized she'd been sleeping too long I went to pick her up and I couldn't wake her up and I asked him 'did anything happen while I was gone?' He said, 'no,'" said Breonna. "She was like this and her legs were pointed like that."
"It was extreme!" said Tracy Bean.
"I couldn't get her to move at all," said Breonna. "When the ambulance got here, they told me she was having a seizure, when she got into the hospital she was having a coma and she was probably going to die, she had a 5 percent chance of living."
The diagnosis? Shaken Baby Syndrome -- a traumatic brain injury that happens when a baby is violently shaken. The ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation says a fourth of all shaken babies die from this condition. That's nearly 1,500 child fatalities every year.
Lily would not be one of those statistics, but initially the prognosis was still grim.
"It's the longest wait of my life. You're sitting there in the waiting room and all you can do is wait for someone to tell you your child has either died or lived," said Breonna.
"When he said she would live, he said, more than likely she would be in a vegetative state, that was about all we could hope for," said Tracy Bean, Lily's Grandmother.
Lily was in St. Luke's Hospital for four weeks. The swelling in her brain forced two surgeries. But she would be one of the lucky ones.
"We started with no hope. Each step of the way it was about finding a little bit more hope," said Tracy Bean.
Just in time for her first birthday, Lily was released from the hospital.
She is a happy little girl who learned to say "hi" from all the visits she received at the hospital.
"Everybody's called her a miracle. A miracle baby. She wasn't supposed to ever come near to what she is today and we're just so grateful," said Tracy Bean.
But Lily is blind and suffering from paralysis on the left side of her body. Prosecutors say Kody Smith admitted injuring the little girl, putting her to bed and neglecting to seek medical attention. An avoidable tragedy, according to Lily's family and one they now want to prevent others from suffering.
“I just wanted to take her story and help it bring awareness to taking the time to say something to somebody that has your child, hey if she gets frustrated, or you get frustrated with her, put her down...walk away," said Tracy Bean. "No matter what happens, we're all different now. We're all different people than we were five weeks ago. We still have great hope that she's going to see again, that she's going to have a full or complete life in every aspect, but if she doesn't get all the way there, we'll give her the best life we have to give her."
Kody Smith is scheduled to enter a plea in court on Monday.
We asked his mother and his attorney for an interview or a comment on the case, but they both declined.
http://www.ktvb.com/news/health/stories/ktvbn-apr2409-shaken_baby.1082f99c1.html
Video at this link. Interview with mother and update on Lily.