Mum charged over baby dying from maggot-infested nappy sobs over court photos
A woman charged over the death of her baby left the courtroom sobbing during the first day of her trial when prosecutors showed photos of her lifeless son in a swing set.
Cheyanne Harris, 21, from Iowa, US, caused a break in her trial at the Plymouth County Courthouse in Le Mars on Wednesday after she broke down in tears when the images were shown, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported.
Harris has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death.
She was arrested in August 2017 after medics found four-month-old Sterling Koehn dead in the swing in a dark, sweltering bedroom.
An autopsy shows he died of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection caused by being left in a maggot-infested diaper for up to two weeks.
Prosecutor Coleman McAllister told jurors on Wednesday that Harris had the resources and parental experience to care for the child.
“Evidence in this case will show Sterling suffered in the last hours and days before his death,” McAllister said.
Chickasaw County Sheriff’s deputies said they found items in the home to care for the child such as nappies, baby formula and diaper rash ointment.
Defence attorney Nichole Watt said Harris’s mental state played a key role in the child’s death.
“The monster in this case is mental health. The monster in this case is depression,” Watt told jurors.
First responders on the scene described the squalid conditions of the home, with Chief Deputy Reed Palo noting “you didn’t want to breathe” because of the smell from urine and faeces in the home.
Wintesses described the couple as lacking emotion when they entered the apartment.
The boy’s father, Zachary Koehn, was sentenced last year to life in prison.
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