Mother of deceased baby testifies in day care trial
The mother of a 10-month-old boy who died at a Millsboro day care in January 2015 took the stand in the trial of her child’s former caregiver.
Gasps of ‘Oh my God,’ could be heard from the gallery as Carlita Laws recounted the day her son died, testifying that she found out about his death on the way to Beebe Healthcare. The boy’s death was ruled a homicide by the Delaware medical examiner, who said the cause of death was diphenhydramine intoxication; diphenhydramine is the active ingredient in the over-the-counter allergy medication Benadryl. The child’s day care provider, Valorie Handy, 52, has been charged with murder by abuse or neglect in the child’s death, with prosecutors alleging she gave the child Benadryl to get the boy to take a nap.
Youthful-looking and soft-spoken, Laws said she at first had been hesitant to send her child to day care. Originally, she said, her niece had helped take care of the boy in the summer of 2014 while she worked 40 hours per week. Her husband worked a job that required frequent travel so he was not home as much. However, when her niece had to go back to school, day care was required, Laws testified.
After searching around, she landed on Handy, 52, and her Handy’s Little Disciples day care in Millsboro. Laws had known of and liked Handy’s day care because it was more like a home and less like a school.
“I felt she was a good caregiver, for what I could see,” Laws testified. “I was satisfied with what I saw.”
Recounting the night before her son died, Laws said her son slept in her bed. She said she overslept the next day and then hustled her son awake and took him to day care. Laws said she tried to get the child to drink milk, but he was uninterested. She and Delaware State Police detectives testified that she did not have Benadryl at her house, and Laws said she had never given the boy Benadryl or any drugs containing diphenhydramine. Laws testified she has long been wary of medications, after having a negative reaction to cough syrup when she was younger. She said her son never got sick until he went to day care.
Laws took her son to Handy’s day care, which was run out of Handy’s home in Millsboro, and told Handy that her son had not eaten that morning, dropping off bottles of breast milk for the boy to drink. She said the boy had been fussy recently because he was teething - she had given him Orajel to help with the pain - but otherwise showed no signs of distress. Other than Zarbee’s, an over-the-counter natural cough syrup for children that does not contain diphenhydramine, Laws testified she never gave Handy authorization to ever give her child medications. Prosecutor Melanie Withers presented a policy waiver Handy provided that stated she was not authorized to give children medications.
Much of Laws’s testimony centered on her and her son’s use of medications, after the defense, led by public defenders Gary Traynor and Daniel Strumpf, intimated the boy may have gotten diphenhydramine in breast milk. Laws testified she did take Alka Seltzer Plus for a cold, which contains diphenhydramine, but she said she took it in the recommended dose. Traynor pressed the mother about being prescribed medications for symptoms of postpartum depression, but Laws testified that she was upset she could not get her boy to breast feed and did not take the drugs prescribed.
Although the boy slept through the night, Laws testified her son was not a great sleeper during the day, generally taking 20- to 30-minute naps. In response to questioning from Withers, Laws testified that she saw a brown pillow in the Pack-n-Play portable crib where her son usually napped at the day care. She said while she knew he shouldn’t have a pillow, she did not raise a concern because her son seemed to be fine. The brown pillow was found next to the Pack-n-Play by police and earlier medical testimony indicated white stains on the pillow tested positive for diphenhydramine.
On the day her son died, Laws testified that she was contacted by Detective Robert Truitt of the Delaware State Police, who told her to get to Beebe Healthcare because there was an emergency situation involving her son. She testified that she called her husband who asked her to call Handy. She said Handy told her that she found her son in his Pack-n-Play not breathing when Handy went to wake him from his nap. Laws said Handy did not call them until later that night, although she said she supported Handy because she thought her son died from sudden infant death syndrome. The medical examiner’s ruling of diphenhydramine intoxication came only months later in May 2015.
Traynor used his cross-examination to poke holes in Laws’s timeline of events, playing an interview with Truitt in which she made statements that did not match up with her testimony on the witness stand.
Other parents and grandparents took the stand to testify about their experience at Handy’s day care. All said that while they knew Handy had a policy against giving medication, they acknowledged that at various points, they allowed Handy to give their children medicine. However, on cross-examination, they all said they had a positive experience with Handy, saying she was affectionate and loving with the children.
“She loved those kids,” one mother testified.
A grandmother testified, “They all loved her,” adding that if the day care were still open, her granddaughter would still be going to Handy’s.
Testimony in the trial is expected to continue Tuesday, Nov. 29. Judge T. Henley Graves has said he hopes the case will be in the jury’s hands by Thursday, Dec. 1.