MOTHER FOUND GUILTY IN STARVATION DEATH OF TWO-MONTH OLD BABY

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 21-year-old woman has been convicted of Criminally negligent homicide in the starvation death of her two-month-old baby.

The jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding that Tabitha Walrond had failed to perceive the risk of death to her child, Tyler Walrond, and therefore had caused his death through behavior that was a gross deviation from a standard of conduct that a reasonable person would exercise under the circumstances.

Mr. Johnson said: "This case was never about breast-feeding. It was about the failure to do something to save a human life, a failure to get help for a baby who was obviously dying during the entire course of his two-month life."

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Straus set sentencing for Wednesday, June 30, 1999 in Part 24. Criminally negligent homicide is a Class "E" felony offense punishable by a maximum sentence of up to 4 years imprisonment.

Tyler Walrond was pronounced dead in the Emergency Room at Bronx Lebanon Hospital on August 27, 1997 when the defendant arrived there with the infant. The New York City Medical Examiner determined that the cause of death was "prolonged starvation and dehydration".

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Robert K. Holdman and Eugenia M. Aiello.