Thread: NY Yonkers mother acquitted in baby's death

October 1, 2009
Yonkers mother acquitted in baby's death

Rebecca Baker
rebaker@lohud.com

WHITE PLAINS - A 21-year-old Yonkers mother has been found not guilty of killing her baby daughter in a stunning rejection of the prosecution's case that she struck the girl's head against a wall and shook her into unconsciousness at her boyfriend's place.

Anthonica St. Victor was acquitted of first- and second-degree manslaughter, felony charges that carried up to 25 years in prison. She was found guilty only of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

She could be released tomorrow when she appears before Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli. St. Victor, a native of Haiti, already been in jail nearly a year but is under an immigration hold.

A jury took 10 hours to find her not guilty in the death of Clarissa St. Victor on Sept. 9, 2008 - days before her first birthday.

The defense argued that Dorrel Foster, St. Victor's boyfriend at the time, was the one who killed the girl. Foster testified for the prosecution that he watched in horror as St. Victor attacked the child in his room at the Century Country Club in Harrison, where he lived in employees' quarters.

He said St. Victor hit the girl's head against a wall and a dresser, then shook and squeezed her before tossing her on the bed. When she became unresponsive, they took her in a taxi to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where Clarissa died of blunt-force trauma in the pediatric intensive care unit.

In her closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Laura Murphy said only two people could have killed Clarissa - her mother or Foster - and that the forensic evidence, namely Clarissa's blood on the wall, matched Foster's version of events.

"People mislead. The physical evidence does not," she said.

Murphy pointed out how St. Victor changed the timeline of when she discovered her baby's fatal injuries. The night of the assault, she told an emergency room doctor that she watched as Clarissa's eyes suddenly rolled back and her body shut down. Later on, when the death was declared a homicide, she told authorities she came out of the bathroom to find her daughter gravely ill.

"She's in ‘protect yourself' mode," Murphy said. "She knows she has to put the baby in Mr. Foster's hands."

The prosecutor urged the jury not to believe St. Victor's testimony that she had no idea how gravely ill the child was after being struck -[0x0f]St. Victor was a nursing studnet before becoming a mother. She also asked jurors to recall Foster's meek, quiet demeanor on the witness stand, compared to St. Victor's anger and frustration during cross examination.

Defense lawyer Richard Portale argued that St. Victor was a loving, concerned mother of a child with sickle-cell anemia who made countless calls and visits to doctors when Clarissa wasn't well.

"Does this sound like a mother who doesn't care?" he asked.

He said there was no evidence of physical abuse before Foster began dating St. Victor in June. He also noted that Foster started blaming her for the slaying only after police threatened to throw him in prison.

Portale told the jury not to convict St. Victor simply to hold someone responsible for Clarissa's death.

"There are no winners here," he said. "Clarissa isn't coming back. No one wins."

http://www.lohud.com/article/2009910010388

OMG ! The poor baby. I can't even imagine what the sick baby must have gone through and then being beaten .....what kind of animal could do this to an innocent baby. It turns my stomach.