Mark & Vannessa Clark Arrested After 2 Babies In 2 Years Die

[Whisper]

Lufkin couple's baby death 2nd in 2 years

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - A Lufkin couple charged in the death of an infant boy also lost another baby two years ago, according to an Angelina County prosecuting attorney. Prosecutors believe both deaths were the result of them sleeping with the babies.

An Angelina County grand jury indicted Mark and Vanessa Clark, both 32, with a charge of child endangerment, following the July 2010 death of their child, who was under the age of three months.

Angelina County prosecuting attorney Dale Summa said in a telephone interview Monday that Hudson Police and Child Protective Services investigated the couple two years ago after a baby died when they slept with it. No criminal charges were ever filed on that case.

Chief Jeff Burns of Hudson PD said the first child died on May 21, 2009, and the case was never brought to a grand jury because an autopsy ruled the cause of death as unknown, and police did not believe a crime was committed. The child was between the ages of four and six months, Burns said.

Summa said he could not go into details of the evidence brought to a grand jury, but that it is believed the couple intentionally and knowingly caused the baby harm.

Lufkin Police and CPS investigated the three-month-old's death.

Summa pointed out that the age of the child makes a big difference in a criminal charge.

"Sleeping with a four-year-old is very different than an infant sleeping with two adults," he said.

In a Facebook message Monday, Mark Clark said law enforcement is just trying to make an example of him and his wife.

"We love our children," he said. "We would never do anything to hurt them! Ask anyone who knows us what kind of parents we are. Promise you will get nothing but good reports! These so called DA detectives and CPS workers are just trying make an example out of us, but here's where the catch is: They're not."

[...]
"Mark and Vanessa are entitled to the full presumption of innocence," John Tunnell said. "They will be tried in the courtroom. Vanessa and Mark place full confidence in our justice system and the fair-minded residents of Angelina County."

CPS Special Investigator Tony Jasso said parents are held accountable when they have reckless behavior.

While not confirming personal involvement with the Clarks' case, he could clarify that just sleeping with a baby isn't against the law.

However, he says a family's history plays a major role in these type of investigations.

"Basically you have to have a history for a pattern of neglect," Jasso said. "For instance, if this is not their first child death in the family."

Because the couple had completed safe-sleep training, negligence becomes an issue.

"Clearly, if they've gone through the training, been advised that after this, it's not safe," Jasso said. "There could be other factors involved. That could've not allowed to care for her child the way she should've."

http://www.ktre.com/story/14982800/l...rue&hpt=ju_bn4

Mark Clark

]

Vanessa Clark

[totallytoddler]

Remove her uterus immediately.

[agnostifarianII]

Am i the only one who finds this OUTRAGEOUS...i might be lacking some details. all of the horrid things reported here on DD and this is what law officials are going after?!

[tmdgirl]

Am i the only one who finds this OUTRAGEOUS...i might be lacking some details. all of the horrid things reported here on DD and this is what law officials are going after?!

I totally get where you're coming from...but I do think the couple should have learned their lesson the first time this happened...instead, they repeated the same behaviour and another child is dead because of it.

At the very least, parenting classes might be in order.

[Silvahalo]

Well it's not against the law to sleep with you infant baby, but....
I am all for co-sleeping so as long as strict and careful measures are taken. I don't know the details on this case but I'm assuming there is much more going on than they simply put their infant baby to sleep with them. It IS against the law to sleep with your baby if you pose serious risk to the child and especially if that neglectful behavior has caused a prior death, as we know it did with their first child.
So, yeah, a lot we don't know, but it sounds like they were given counsel of some sort, a class, training and still they repeated the neglectful behavior. Could be they had baby in the bed with them as they were drunk, high, what have you.
what's the law going to do? slap their hands?....bad, bad parents! i'm going to assume from what I have read that they deserve what they are getting. I remember a case in which a drunk bitch slept with her babies, count 3, all died. nail her ass to the wall.

CPS Special Investigator Tony Jasso said parents are held accountable when they have reckless behavior.While not confirming personal involvement with the Clarks' case, he could clarify that just sleeping with a baby isn't against the law.
However, he says a family's history plays a major role in these type of investigations.
"Basically you have to have a history for a pattern of neglect," Jasso said. "For instance, if this is not their first child death in the family."
Because the couple had completed safe-sleep training, negligence becomes an issue.
"Clearly, if they've gone through the training, been advised that after this, it's not safe," Jasso said. "There could be other factors involved. That could've not allowed to care for her child the way she should've."

Rest in peace little ones.

[Robynne]

I have co-slept with all of my children. I did it because I was afraid of SIDs. I woke to every movement they made. If I had slept with my child in my bed, and it resulted in the death of one of them, you can be damned sure I would have NOT done it again.

This is why they are being charged. The first time didn't result in any charges because it was an accident. But they knew what they were risking this time around.

[Obsolete]

I slept with my son because he was my first and I was a young parent...big mistake. It took me FOREVER to get him to start sleeping in his own bed. When he was a few months old I fell asleep on the couch with him on my chest. I was out cold but he slipped off my chest and my arm instinctively shot out like a rocket and caught him...my arm was moving even before I was awake according to my mom who was in the same room with us.

I also have a cousin who was sleeping with her baby and rolled over onto him and he died. When the next baby was born she refused to let him sleep anywhere but with her because she was terrified of him dying (ironic I know). She ended up shooting herself in the head because she couldn't cope with knowing she killed her baby.

I don't know if this woman is extremely stupid, unfortunate, or homicidal but either way she should have known better.

[Bohring]

@Obsolete, that is awful. I'm sorry.

[Momzilla]

I have co-slept with all of my children. I did it because I was afraid of SIDs. I woke to every movement they made. If I had slept with my child in my bed, and it resulted in the death of one of them, you can be damned sure I would have NOT done it again.

This is why they are being charged. The first time didn't result in any charges because it was an accident. But they knew what they were risking this time around.

Exactly, If I had a baby die due to a dangerous crib, there's no way in hell I'd ever put a 2nd baby in that same crib! It's common sense. Also, this quote:
.

"There could be other factors involved. That could've not allowed to care for her child the way she should've."

Hmmm....other factors = drugs and/or alcohol? Could explain why you wouldn't feel your child fighting for air beneath you.

[Whisper]

Vanessa Clark: Second SIDS Death in a Year Leads to Child Endangerment Conviction

A Lufkin woman has been convicted of felony child endangerment after an infant died in her bed for the second time in a span of two calendar years.

Yesterday afternoon an Angelina County jury handed down a guilty verdict against Vanessa Clark, 33, for her role in the death of her two-month-old son Tristan on July 9, 2010. She told paramedics on the scene that the baby had died while sleeping in the bed he was sharing with Clark and husband Mark Clark.

She was indicted in connection with Tristan's death in June of 2011, after it came to light that the Clarks had lost a one-month-old son named Christian in 2009 in a nearly identical manner.

According to testimony in Clark's trial, after the demise of the first baby, CPS workers warned Clark in no uncertain terms about the dangers of co-sleeping: Infants can be suffocated accidentally by their parents or in the folds of their bedding and pillows.

Prosecutor Dale Summa told the court that because of that earlier tragedy, the Clarks should have known better than to risk a repeat, and by letting Tristan sleep in their bed, they were placing the boy in imminent danger, thus rising to the legal threshold of child endangerment in Texas criminal law.

Defense attorney John Reeves riposted that CPS did not expressly warn the Clarks against co-sleeping with Tristan under any circumstances but instead coached them on how to do it more safely.
[...]
"It may not be illegal to sleep with your child, but it is illegal to put your child in imminent danger," countered Summa, and the jury apparently agreed with Summa's definition of "imminent danger." Clark, the bleach-blond locks and sunny smile of her mugshot now gone, reportedly trembled as the verdict was read.

She could face two years in state jail for the felony conviction, and Summa has said that he plans to try Mark Clark on the same charges soon.
Since elevated levels of hydrocodone and Xanax were found in her blood, and several jars of (legally prescribed) pills were found on her nightstand, Vanessa Clark faces mandatory drug testing while she waits at home for sentencing.
The court is compiling a pre-sentencing report, and there is a lot of grist for that mill in Angelina County records. In addition to several theft and drug convictions, Clark was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to four years in prison back in 2000, though she was released through shock probation after serving less than a year. She hasn't kept her nose entirely clean since then, but the frequency and magnitude of the arrests on her rap sheet have both dwindled. Since getting out of prison, she's only piled up a couple of hot check busts and a shoplifting case.

Since the verdict hinged on an intriguing definition of "imminent danger," we're thinking we haven't seen the last of this case.

http://houstonpress.com/hairballs/20..._sids_deat.php

[Jerri Blank]

Lufkin father found not guilty in infant's co-sleeping death

Not guilty.
The nightmare is over for Lufkin father Mark Clark after being acquitted of child endangerment Wednesday in the bed-sharing death of his 2-month-old son.

Clark, 33, endured three days of testimony and six hours of deliberation this week. Each day he relived the July 2010 morning his son Tristan was found not breathing in the king-size bed shared with wife Vanessa and the couple’s 3-year-old son. Bed-sharing with an infant went against the advice of Child Protective Services when the couple lost another infant the same way 14-months earlier, according to prosecutor Dale Summa.

In a police interview played for the jury, a tearful Clark tells a detective he begged Vanessa to put the baby in his bassinet. He was asleep when she put baby Tristan in their bed, according to testimony.

With the verdict read by state district judge Paul White, the courtroom erupted into sighs of relief. There were tears from Clark, Vanessa and his family as they exchanged hugs. A few jurors were seen wiping their eyes also.

Walking out of the courthouse a free man, Clark declined comment but did say faith and prayers work.

Believing in his client’s innocence is what made the case among the most stressful he’s ever defended, said Bill Agnew, Clark’s attorney.

“The hardest case for a lawyer is when you think your client is innocent,” Agnew said. “He lost a baby. You don’t want to end up being in a situation where someone loses a baby and then ends up being a convicted felon.”

Unlike her husband, Vanessa was found guilty of child endangerment a month ago and will be sentenced by White in the coming weeks.

As the charge was enhanced from a state jail felony because of a previous conviction, she faces up to 10 years in prison.

http://lufkindailynews.com/news/loca...9bb2963f4.html


Mark Clark hugs his mother Wednesday after being found not guilty of child endangerment in the co-sleeping death of his 2-month-old son.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A judge sentenced Vanessa Clark on Thursday to nine years and 11 months in prison for the death of 2-month-old son Tristan. An Angelina County jury found her guilty of child endangerment in April. She could have received up to 10 years in prison.

Husband Mark Clark was acquitted in May in a separate trial.

Prosecutors said Vanessa Clark had elevated levels of Xanax and hydrocodone in her system when she took Tristan into bed, despite her husband's pleas that she not. Tristan was suffocated, just as 1-month-old Christian Clark was when Vanessa Clark placed him in bed with her and her husband in 2009.

http://www.kztv10.com/news/mother-se...r-babys-death/

[sinfulplezurz702]

The other day my 3 month old daughter rolled off of my bed onto the hardwood floor head first. It scares the crap outta me cuz her lil heads so fragile. The ER dr said her cat scan showed no damage n she was healthy as can be..but i'll never EVER again leave her unattended on my bed or anywhere she could fall from...accidents like these do happen...ONCE...if they happen again then no doubt someones being negligent

[navsec]

if she had been sober when it happened it probably would have been a lighter sentence

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Lufkin woman convicted in the death of her infant child pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of prescription fraud.

Vanessa Lynn Clark, 34, will face her sentencing at a later date. In exchange for pleading guilty to the five counts, the remaining 13 counts were dropped.

The grand jury indicted Vanessa on the 18 counts and her husband, Mark Wayne Clark, 33, on 29 counts of fraud in November.

The Clarks went to trial separately in 2012 in connection to their infant son's death in 2010. It was their second son to die as a result of them sleeping with it. According to courtroom testimony, both Clarks used prescription drugs in 2010.

A jury found Vanessa Clark guilty of child endangerment in April. District Judge Paul White sentenced her to 119 months in prison. She is out of prison on a $100,000 appeal bond.
[...]

Vanessa Clark's indictment alleges she misrepresent herself on nine occasions in order to obtain hydrocodone and on eight occasions to obtain Xanax.

Mark Clark's indictment alleges he misrepresented himself on 15 occasions to obtain hydrocodone and on 14 occasions to obtain Xanax.

Mark Clark is scheduled for jury selection on Monday.

http://www.ktre.com/story/21952839/l...o-drug-charges