Supreme Court of South Carolina holds testimony regarding Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) admissible in child abuse shaken baby homicides.
South Carolina v. Brenda Gail Cutro, 2005 S.C. LEXIS 245, (Supreme Court of South Carolina August 15, 2005)
Over the course of nine months in 1993, two infants died at the appellant’s home while she was providing daycare. A third infant in the appellant’s daycare was diagnosed with serious brain damage. The assault on the third child was tried separately, however, the appellant was acquitted of these assault charges. The two homicides were tried together. Appellant claimed that she was unfairly prejudiced by the joinder of charges and by the admission of evidence of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. The evidence collected at the home and testimony regarding the appellant’s behavioral responses to the death supported the State’s theory that the appellant’s motive was to kill the children in order to gain attention. The court found that the expert testimony regarding Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and the attention seeking behavior of appellant was admissible as evidence of motive.
The Court also ruled that the joinder of charges was admissible under both motive and common scheme or plan. (Dissenting opinion held that it was reversible error to allow charges to be tried together, stating that the events did not arise out of a single chain of circumstances and required different proof).
The original autopsies of the two murdered children reported the cause of death to be Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but subsequent examinations revealed evidence of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS). According to the expert testimony of State witness Dr. Ophoven, the autopsies of the two infants showed petechial hemorrhages and sub-dural hematomas, indicating the causes of the deaths were traumatic shaking and asphyxia. Dr. Ophoven further testified that she examined 274 autopsies from 1993 of all the children younger than one year in SC that died of SIDS. In her testimony, she stated that the two children that died in the appellant’s home were the only two that had petechial hemorrhages and sub-dural hematomas. This evidence validated her conclusion that petechial hemorrhages do not occur in SIDS cases. The court allowed testimony regarding other autopsy reports since “medical testimony created an issue regarding the significance of petechial hemorrhages in determining the cause of death of the two infants”.
Based on its analysis of the issues, the court upheld the appellant’s convictions.
