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Murder of Garnett Spears

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Murder of Garnett Spears
Born
Garnett-Paul Thompson Spears

(2008-12-03)December 3, 2008
Decatur, Alabama, U.S.
DiedJanuary 23, 2014(2014-01-23) (aged 5)
Valhalla, New York, U.S.
Cause of deathPoisoning by table salt
Known forMurder case
Parent(s)Chris Hill
Lacey Spears

Garnett-Paul Thompson Spears (December 3, 2008 – January 23, 2014)[1] was a 5-year-old boy who died at a hospital in suburban Valhalla, New York.[2] He was murdered by his mother, Lacey Spears, who injected him with high levels of sodium, leading to swelling in his brain.[3]

Murder case

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On March 2, 2015, a jury found Spears guilty of murdering her son by poisoning him with table salt, which she had administered to him from infancy through his feeding tube.[4][5] Spears was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. On April 8, 2015, a judge sentenced Spears to 20 years to life in prison.

The judge in the case, Robert Neary, acknowledged that Spears suffers from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and therefore did not sentence her to the maximum of 25 years in prison before parole eligibility.[5] Her murder conviction was upheld in state appellate court and the state's highest court declined to review her conviction.[6]

As of January 2023, she is imprisoned at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, and eligible for parole no earlier than June 12, 2034.[7]

Lacey Spears

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Lacey Spears, who was later diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, was born and raised in Decatur, Alabama. Lonely as a single mother and desperate for attention, Lacey constantly posted on social media about her son's health struggles, even going so far as to start a blog devoted to chronicling her search for a cure for whatever illnesses plagued him. Telling friends she wanted to leave Alabama, Lacey moved with Garnett to Florida to live with her maternal grandmother, Peggy.[8][9][10][11][12]

Eventually, she moved with her son to the town of Chestnut Ridge, New York, 14 months prior to Garnett's death. In New York, Lacey and Garnett lived in a community called The Fellowship for elderly and disabled people. In explaining her son's paternity, she created a fictional character, police officer Blake, who died in a car accident, to be Garnett's father. She lied to Garnett's biological father, Chris Hill,[13] that Garnett was not his son and threatened him to keep distance from her and Garnett.[11][14][8]

In media

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  • My Sweet Angel: The True Story of Lacey Spears, the Seemingly Perfect Mother Who Murdered Her Son in Cold Blood (2016) by John Glatt, published by St. Martin's Press
  • Deadliest Mums & Dads episode "The Poisoning of Garnett Spears"

See also

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  • Crime in New York
  • List of poisonings
  • Julie Gregory, an Ohio woman who wrote a memoir in 2003, Sickened, about her mother's Munchausen-by-proxy abuse of her, which she tried to report to various health professionals.
  • Wendi Michelle Scott, a Maryland woman with Munchausen-by-proxy who injected her four-year-old daughter with magnesium in 2007 and was sentenced to prison in 2008.
  • Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard, a Missouri woman with Munchausen-by-proxy who was killed by her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend in 2015.
  • Death of Olivia Gant, a 2017 case in which a seven-year-old girl died through numerous acts of medical abuse by her mother, deemed Munchausen-by-proxy and medical fraud.
  • Shauna Taylor, a Florida woman who caused deliberate destruction to her unnamed child's liver in an act of Munchausen-by-proxy and intentional poisoning.

References

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  1. ^ Kramer, Peter D. (December 3, 2014). "Garnett Spears: Remembering him on his 6th birthday". The Journal News. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  2. ^ Crimesider Staff (April 8, 2015). "Mom sentenced in salt poisoning death of her 5-year-old son". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 10, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  3. ^ Brand, Anna (April 8, 2015). "Salt mom Lacey Spears sentenced to 20 years to life in prison". MSNBC. Archived from the original on April 9, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  4. ^ Higgins, Lee (March 2, 2015). "Mom convicted of killing son by poisoning him with salt". USA Today. Archived from the original on April 8, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Mother who killed son with salt for web attention jailed". BBC News. April 9, 2015. Archived from the original on April 10, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  6. ^ Spillane, Matt; Eberhart, Christopher J. (October 11, 2017). "Lacey Spears' murder conviction in son's salt-poisoning death upheld". The Journal News. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  7. ^ "Incarcerated Lookup | Department ID Number: 15G0289". New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  8. ^ a b Cohen, Shawn; Kramer, Peter D. (March 23, 2014). "Losing Garnett the Great, Part 2: Two fathers; one real, one imagined". The Journal News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  9. ^ Cohen, Shawn; Kramer, Peter D. (March 23, 2014). "Losing Garnett the Great, Part 1: Boy's death reveals mom's lies". The Journal News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  10. ^ Cohen, Shawn; Kramer, Peter D. (March 25, 2014). "Losing Garnett the Great, Part 3: Ex-nurse had suspicions". The Journal News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  11. ^ a b Cohen, Shawn; Kramer, Peter D. (March 25, 2014). "Losing Garnett the Great, Part 4: Sun and sandcastles". The Journal News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  12. ^ Cohen, Shawn; Kramer, Peter D. (March 27, 2014). "Losing Garnett the Great, Part 5: 'Garnett the Great journeyed onward'". The Journal News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  13. ^ "Failure to Thrive". Devil in Suburbia. Season 1. Episode 6. Joke Productions. 2022-09-13. Investigation Discovery. Ret. Detective Daniel Carfi, Westchester County Police Department: But a paternity test later on, which Chris agreed to, uh, it was determined that he was – in fact – the father.
  14. ^ Cohen, Shawn; Kramer, Peter D. (March 24, 2014). "For boy who died, two fathers — one real, one imagined". USA Today. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
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