Thread: Baby clings to life; parents charged

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Lawyer: Doctors killed baby

By Scott Harper, sharper@gtowntimes.com September 07, 2006


The attorney representing the man accused of killing his newborn baby girl says it was the doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital, not his client, who are ultimately responsible for his client’s daughter’s death.

On Tuesday, 9-week-old Judith Hernandez died after being on life support at the Medical University for 40 days.
Her parents — Ramon Hernandez, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant and Yuribel Najera, 22 — are charged with homicide by child abuse as a result of the injuries that led to her death.

Georgetown police say Hernandez — in an angry rage — smashed his daughter’s head against a wall on July 26 at their home off of Cleland Street. Najera was arrested because she, according to police, waited more than 24 hours to get medical help for her daughter.

Doctors at MUSC, from the time the infant arrived during the early morning hours of July 29, have said she was clinically brain dead but she was placed on life support. The life support was maintained, even though doctors said there was no brain activity.

Hernandez would not agree to sign a “do no resuscitate” waiver although Najera agreed to sign. The Department of Social Services took the parents to family court last week in an effort to obtain the authority to make the decision on when or if the life support system should be removed.

Hernandez was pronounced dead before the judge in the case could issue his ruling in the matter.

When asked Wednesday who made the decision to pull the life support plug, Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnson said it was the MUSC doctors. He said he was told the doctors made the decision because there was no blood at all flowing to the baby’s brain. Before Tuesday, he said, there was at least some blood flowing to her brain.

Attorney Stuart Axelrod, who has been appointed to represent Hernandez, said since neither DSS or both parents gave the OK to pull the plug, Hernandez should not be charged with her murder.

“I think they made a mistake. The doctors killed the baby,” Axelrod said.
The Times contacted MUSC for a response to Axelrod’s claims Wednesday. A spokesperson said the hospital could not comment on a specific case.

Ray Chandler, the attorney handling Najera’s case, said he will push to have the charges against his client reduced or dismissed because, he said, she did not cause the injuries on her daughter.
Chandler said a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday but he is going to ask that the hearing be postponed “for a couple of weeks” since the upgraded charges are new.

He also asked if he could pass along a message from Najera. He said she wanted to thank the medical staffs at Georgetown Memorial Hospital and MUSC for the service they gave to her daughter.

“They are angels of mercy and kindness. I also want to thank all of the people who have offered up prayers for my child,” Chandler quoted Najera as saying.

A Tragic Year
There have been five murders in Georgetown County so far in 2006. Three of those have occurred in the Georgetown city limits in less than four months.

Before May of this year, there had not been a murder in the city of Georgetown since October, 2003.
“That’s unheard of in Georgetown,” City Police Capt. Nelson Brown said Wednesday.

The deadly spree began on May 27 when 40-year-old Sherry Keyes of the 7000 block of Highmarket was stabbed to death in room 30 of the Bayview Motel.

Ladislao Bostos, 21, an illegal immigrant who was living on Hope Lane, was arrested for the murder. He is still in jail awaiting trial.

Last Friday, 33-year-old Kesha Rudolph was shot and killed in front of her 11-year-old daughter, allegedly by the girl’s father, 38-year-old Eric Smith. He is in jail awaiting a bond hearing on the murder charge.
Rudolph’s funeral will take place at 2 p.m. today at Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church.

Working for Prevention
Two of the three murders in the city this year were the result of domestic violence situations. In fact, domestic violence has been at the root of most of the killings that have occurred up and down the Grand Strand this year.

Brown said, despite the increase in murders, people should still feel safe in the city.

“You have to look at the dynamics of each case. You will see none of these are a result of street violence and one of them are linked to street crime,” Brown said. “There is no reason for alarm.”

Georgetown Police Chief Dan Furr said a lot of resources are being spent locally and nationwide to try to combat the domestic violence problem.
Besides the three murders that occurred in Georgetown, there was one in Murrells Inlet on March 8 when Vladimir Pantovich, 54, allegedly killed his girlfriend Sheila Ann McPherson with a baseball bat.

On July 7, 10-year-old Zackary Haymon was shot with a .22-caliber rifle in front of his home in Andrews. His 12-year-old neighbor has been charged with his death and is being detained at the Department of Juvenile Justice.

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Bond denied for accused parents


By Scott Harper, sharper@gtowntimes.com September 09, 2006


The parents accused of inflicting injuries that resulted in the death of their 9-week-old daughter will remain in jail at least for the next week-and-a-half.

Ramon Hernandez, 26, and Yuribel Najera, 22, appeared before City Court Judge Robbie O’Donnell for a bond hearing Friday. They are both facing charges of homicide by child abuse because of the death of infant Judith Hernandez. The baby’s father is charged with the actual abuse — slamming her head into a wall — that led to the baby’s death and is facing 20 years to life in prison. Najera is accused of letting the abuse happen and failing to get timely medical attention. She could receive 10 to 20 years in prison.

The alleged abuse occurred July 26 at their home off Cleland Street.
Senior Assistant Solicitor Matthew Modica told O’Donnell the state feels both parents are flight risks because Hernandez is an illegal immigrant and Najera, a permitted resident, has family in Detroit and has few ties to Georgetown.

Najera told O’Donnell that before his arrest, Hernandez worked at Pawleys Island Landscaping. She said Hernandez has lived in Georgetown since 2001 and she has lived here about two years.

O’Donnell said he was denying bond but the matter could be reviewed in General Sessions Court during the week of Sept. 18.

Meanwhile, Hernandez’s attorney, Stuart Axelrod, repeated his claim that his client should not be charged with his daughter’s death because the life support system she had been hooked up to for 40 days was disconnected at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) without the permission of Hernandez. In fact, according to Axelrod, Hernandez gave specific orders Tuesday — the same day the baby died — not to pull the plug.

He said Hernandez received a call from MUSC Tuesday afternoon informing him the life support for his daughter — who had been clinically brain dead since arriving at MUSC — was being discontinued.

“My client said to them, the best I know, please don’t do that. I’m praying for a miracle. Then my client said ‘if you are going to do it, I want to see my daughter first. They told him take it up with the jail,” Axelrod said.

He claims MUSC did not have the legal right to pull the plug without the approval of both Hernandez and Najera. A family court judge was considering whether the S.C. Department of Social Services (DSS) could make that decision when the baby died.

Modica said he was told by a DSS attorney that doctors made the decision to pull the plug because there was no more blood going to the infant’s brain.

Axelrod said he will ask that the homicide by child abuse charge against Hernandez be dismissed because “the death did not occur because of my client’s hands.”

“Somebody at MUSC took it upon themselves to take that baby’s life,” Axelrod said Friday.

IMO, Stuart Axelrod is not better than the client he defends.