Police: Intoxicated Mom Found Lying On Top Of Dead Toddler

[KittyMom]

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/15230746/detail.html

Boyfriend Finds Unresponsive Child

INDIANAPOLIS -- A 2-year-old boy was pronounced dead after he was found unresponsive beneath his passed out mother at an Indianapolis motel room early Wednesday morning, police said.

The boy, identified as Sheldon Bartley Jr., was taken to Community East Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:10 a.m., police said.

According to Indianapolis Metro police, the boyfriend of Latasha McMorris, 24, called 911 at about 12:30 a.m. when he found McMorris passed out and lying on top of the child in room 104 of the EconoLodge Motel in the 3500 block of North Shadeland Avenue.

The boyfriend, whose identity was not immediately released, told police that the boy was not breathing when he found him. Officials said they believe the boy was suffocated.

Investigators said they think McMorris had been under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs when she passed out.

Police said they are treating the case as a homicide and that McMorris was being held on a charge of felony neglect. An autopsy was planned Wednesday to determine what caused Bartley's death.

Investigators said McMorris was convicted of child neglect in July 2007. Child Protective Services removed McMorris' children, including Bartley, from her custody when she was convicted, police said.

According to officials, McMorris also has several prior arrests on alcohol-related offenses.


:1187603408.CR.Mothe Another child who wasn't protected from the one person he shouldn't need protection from.

[gibbrishclown]

babe should have never been returned to her... now 7 months after her neglect conviction he's dead. :mad:

[Roamer]

Social services need to change their thinking that children should be with biological parents. In some cases, they are dead wrong, and it's the child who pays for it with his/her life.

[Texas53]

Social services need to change their thinking that children should be with biological parents. In some cases, they are dead wrong, and it's the child who pays for it with his/her life.

Social Services are mandated by state laws. There is also the tired old excuse that the child should be placed back in the home with their parents, after the parents have gone through rehab or medical help.

Some judges are getting smarter with loop holes in the laws and just not buying into returning kids to the home. Otherwise to keep a child from ever going back to the same family/home, the parental rights have to be terminated.

People in each state need to lobby and stay on their state legislators to change these laws. Thats were a good part of the problem is. Social services can only do so much. They do not make the laws. But they do have to abide by them.

I'm a part of a group here in the S. Texas area that is constantly staying in our legislators faces to make changes. Because of groups like the one I'm in, we now have the sentences of Life in Prison (til you die) or Death if a child under the age of 7 is murdered by a sexual predator. We are still working to get the age changed higher on a child. The state legislators made deals and thats the best they would go last session.

[Roamer]

Good for you and your group, Texas!! You're exactly right. People cannot be heard if they don't speak up.

[Texas53]

Good for you and your group, Texas!! You're exactly right. People cannot be heard if they don't speak up.

Thanks, Roamer.

If anyone on the board doesn't have a group in their town or state, search for a national group. This way you can start a chapter in your town. Children have no voice. Unless we all get involved in some way, being a part of a group, writing to your legislator, etc., things won't change. Some changes accomplished are just one step at a time, but they are changes. :)

[emmeblu]

:mad:This poor child. He never really had a chance. Too bad they cannot charge her with murder 1 and send her to prison for the rest of her life!