tyrell: they're charging a woman who was breast-feeding her child with starving it to death? judge, this is ridiculous. haven't these people heard the word intent? there was nothing unintentional about this baby's death. tyrell: she was a loving mother who had trouble nursing her child. carmichael: your client neglected advice ignored the warning signs. given her conduct this baby's death was a certainty. and this comes from who, dad? i'm sorry, ms. tyrell, but whether or not your client's conduct was an accident is a matter for trial. your motion to dismiss is denied. we'll pick a jury tomorrow. carmichael: how many of you are parents? so, most of you have changed a diaper woken up in the middle of the night at the sound of a cry or a cough. is that right... mrs. chazin? chazin: many times. because it was important to you as part of your role as a parent to be aware of your child especially when they're ung. yes, of course. you're going to hear testimony that a baby starved to death. starved to death in the arms of his mother.

mrs. chazin, can i have your promise that you will remember your experience as a parent when you consider whether or not this could have been an accident? yes. may i have that promise from all of you? yes. thank you. we want you to remember, too, mrs. chazin. we want you to remember that first night when you brought your baby home. were you nervous? very. why? because i didn't know what to do. or what to expect? i guess. that, too. what about you, mr. carouso? i saw your hand go up before. were you scared, sir? oh, with our first my wife wouldn't even put the baby down long enough to get dressed. we want you to remember that, mr. carouso as you sit in judgment of these autopsy photographs.

objection. overruled. we want you to remember that as you sit in judgment of amy beltran. can you all promise to do that as well? my god. sidebar, your honor. step up. obviously, i'm going to have to challenge everyone in that box. the people oppose. did you see their faces, counselor? judge, if defense counsel intends to continue showing the autopsy photos can we at least conduct the questioning individually, in chambers so we don't poison the whole panel? sorry, i just think she did it. you understand you haven't heard any testimony yet. come on, judge, look at this. she had to know. challenge, your honor. you're excused, sir. how many more jurors do we have left? that's the last of them, judge.

your honor, it is not my fault defense counsel chose to show those photographs during voir dire. what did you expect me to do... wait until your closing argument? ms. tyrell is right. she can't spend the trial running from these photographs. but there is another option. a bench trial? she waived a jury. now we have a judge deciding the guilt of this defendant? judge steinman was the one who suggested it. i need to go rewrite my opening. did the judge wink? i don't think steinman would go through a whole day of jury selection if she's already made up her mind. makes me nervous. steinman held... 34 bench trials last year... 26 acquittals. so much for the power of an autopsy photograph. read these lately? we're catching flak for going after this woman. abbie knows what she's doing. i keep telling myself.

rodgers: it's called "failure to thrive." it refers to a baby's failure to achieve certain physical milestones on a predetermined timeline. and, upon autopsy, did kyle beltran exhibit any indications that he'd suffered from failure to thrive? yes. there was virtually no fatty tissue anywhere on the child. his bones were clubbed and frayed indicating a severe vitamin deficiency. he also tested positive for osteoid. there's no question kyle beltran's death resulted from starvation. none. tyrell: the baby's length was within normal parameters wasn't it, doctor? in fact, it was in the 85th percentile for length at six weeks isn't that correct? yes. and a long baby can sometimes seem bigger than it really is. it might. babies, also, often lose weight when they come home from the hospital, don't they? it's not unusual. but those mothers aren't starving their children to death, are they?

no, but one would expect a weight gain to commence within a short time. how short a time? it depends on the baby. what you're saying, then, doctor is that the "when" part isn't so definite. yes. so my client, being a new mother might simply have made a mistake. objection. sustained. doctor, have you ever come across a death attributed to failure to thrive where the infant was under the care of a pediatrician? i have. nothing further. any redirect? dr. rodgers in the last days of kyle beltran's life what would the defendant have seen with respect to her baby? your honor, is this necessary? i think it is, for me. the child's skin would have sagged and he would have developed a yellowish tint from the vitamin deficiency. his eyes would have a sunken effect and he would also have an aged appearance. what about urine and stool output?

nonexistent. his diapers would be dry. crying? constant, i'd imagine... but without tears. we just weren't ready for a baby... for how difficult it is. kyle was always crying. amy wasn't getting any sleep. she didn't have anyone to talk to... any help. what about the lactation counselor? she went once. she wouldn't go back. why? she said she didn't have to. she said she took kyle to a clinic and they told her everything was fine. what eventually happened to your baby, mr. beltran? i came home one night and... i didn't hear anything, you know? not crying or anything. and where was amy? she was sitting on the couch smoking a cigarette. what did you do? i asked her if kyle was asleep. she didn't answer, so i went inside to look.

kyle was in his crib... dead. then what happened? i guess she must have followed me into the room. i asked her again what happened and when she didn't answer again... i slapped her. she started bleeding. and then? then... she went into the bathroom and that's when i heard the glass break. she slammed the medicine cabinet door. did she say why? mr. beltran? did your wife tell you why she smashed that mirror? she said she killed our baby. nothing further. amy never wanted that baby, did she?

you were the one who insisted that she have it. weren't you? yes. only, once she did you were never around. amy was the one getting up in the middle of the night, right? i was working. working-- you mean you were too busy to feed your own child. that's not what i said. when you came home and found your baby dead did you call the police? no. no, instead, you wrapped your child in a blanket and then you stuck it in your tool bag is that right? i didn't want anything to happen to amy. oh, is that why you're here testifying? objection. sustained. the medical examiner has said that anyone looking at your baby could see that it was in trouble. could you? i called that counselor. and did you follow up? amy said everything was fine. but you knew that it wasn't, didn't you? there was formula in that apartment. there were bottles.

ever think to feed your son, mr. beltran? amy said we weren't supposed to. ever think to bring your son to a doctor? amy did! but did you? no. but she's the one on trial. no more questions. you saw amy beltran twice, is that right? yes, once at the hospital and once as a walk-in to our clinic. and you demonstrated the proper techniques to breast-feed? absolutely. and she was able to breast-feed in your presence. yes, her milk production seemed fine. and you spoke with her a third time? she was supposed to come into the clinic for another appointment. when she didn't, i called her. she told me everything was all right. and this was about three weeks after her visit with you maybe a week before the baby died?

yes. thank you. amy beltran came to you because she was having problems, isn't that right? she seemed unsure of herself. but you told her that women had been doing this for generations that it was a normal process, correct? of course. if she was failing, it was her fault. if she was putting in the effort, there's no question she would have been successful. you told amy not to give her baby any bottles or formula, didn't you? a bottle is easier for a baby to suck. once it has the bottle it may refuse to latch on to the mother's breast. because breast milk is best for the baby we encourage women to stick with the breast only. yes, but you do more than encourage, don't you? i don't know what you mean. you told amy beltran that bottle-feeding her baby could cause nipple confusion that her baby might not then ever take to her breast. isn't that what you said to her? i use whatever methods i can to ensure that the baby gets breast milk. and those methods often include threats

and intimidation, don't they? that's your interpretation. no, ma'am. that was my client's interpretation. objection. sustained. breast-feeding is almost a crusade with you ms. strickland, isn't it? that's not true. you lecture on the benefits of breast milk. you have written articles on the subject, haven't you? that's far from a crusade. not that far. when you insist that a mother breast-feed her child exclusively when it's obvious that a baby is in trouble. you make it sound like breast-feeding is an unnatural process. formula is what's unnatural. children have difficulty digesting it and it doesn't contain the same antibodies or immunities. but babies don't starve to death on it, do they?

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apply cold therapy in the first 24 hours. but not just any cold. i only use new thermacare® cold wraps. targettemp technology delivers a consistent, therapeutic cold to stop pain and start healing. new thermacare® cold wraps. a better way to treat pain. judge hated her.d start healing. if tyrell hasn't made out reasonable doubt she's coming pretty close. strickland's testimony doesn't relieve amy of her responsibility. maybe not, but it helps explain her conduct. are you thinking of making her an offer? if i do that, it'll look like i'm worried. you already look worried. i don't know what the next move is. what if i make the offer?

that way you can keep the hard line. besides, it's been a while since i played good cop. man one, she serves the max-- eight-and-a-third to 25. you're joking? do you see anyone around here smiling? there was a father here, too, and a lactation counselor-- any number of people who were responsible for the death of that child. why is it just the mother you want your pound of flesh from? because, ultimately, she is the one that failed that baby. criminal negligence... she serves a year-- same as jimmy. like you said, jimmy's not the one on trial here. man one. i don't think so. come on. well, we gave her a chance. yeah. only one thing to do now: stick the dagger in.

from the very beginning, kyle was having problems. he wasn't doing like they showed me at the hospital and there's, like, no way to tell if he's getting anything, you know? why not give him the formula? i signed a contract. a contract? at the hospital. i promised i would only breast-feed. miss strickland said that breast milk was best for kyle. she made it sound like giving him a bottle might be dangerous. and what did you do? i took kyle to a medicaid clinic. the nurse said that he was normal size and everything but she told me i couldn't see a doctor. i didn't have my medicaid card yet. she told me that i should come back in about three weeks but by then... miss strickland says that you came to see her, too. yes. and what happened at that visit? she started in again about breast milk being best for kyle and that if there was a problem it was because i wasn't trying hard enough. miss strickland has also testified that sometime afterward, she called you and you told her everything was fine. she'd made it seem like it was my fault, you know?

like i was a bad mother. i just... i wasn't going to go through that again. tell us about the night that kyle died. that last day, he got real quiet. i thought maybe he was getting better. i... went in to check on him and... his little hands-- they were so cold. i got a blanket to wrap him and, um, that's when i realized he wasn't breathing. what did you do? there was nothing i could do. i was just so scared and jimmy was so angry. he told me he never wanted to see me again. he slapped me and he said that we had to get rid of him... rid of kyle. why? because we didn't have money for lawyers. he said that we'd get in a lot of trouble.

he said he'd take kyle to his parents' house. amy... did you intend for your baby to die? no. no, i swear. okay. carmichael: you moved in with mitch polichek the night jimmy left, didn't you? i couldn't stay in the apartment. we heard testimony from mitch polichek that when you woke up the next morning it was the first night's sleep you'd had in several months. is that true? it was. so, you were pretty happy about not having a baby to take care of anymore. that isn't true. because now you could smoke and sleep and do all the things you couldn't when you were a mother. it wasn't like that. mitch polichek testified that you told him you wished you had never gotten pregnant. that's the way i... i felt before he was born. but you continued to feel that way even after you had him, didn't you?

no. that's the way you felt even as you watched him starve to death. objection. no. even as you watched your husband put his tiny lifeless body into that bag. your honor. overruled. i tried. is that why you turned up the volume on the television when you heard your baby cry? because you were trying? i needed help. you had help. i didn't. the hospital gave you formula, but you didn't use it. i told you why. even when you were turned away from the clinic you didn't seek any other medical help, did you? the nurse said he was okay. but you were his mother. they said he was okay. but you knew he wasn't, didn't you? you just wanted your baby dead. i didn't know what to do. i swear, i didn't know.