Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991 TAG: 9103051278
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE and RON BROWN STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Despite that evidence, Roanoke prosecutors say they plan to keep the woman in jail on a charge of felony child neglect unless genetic tests prove she is not the mother.
"As far as we are concerned, until we get the DNA [test results], the question has not been answered," Chief Assistant Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony said Monday.
Carolyn Ann Smallwood Snyder, who is in the Roanoke City Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond, confessed to police in February that she was the mother. She later recanted, saying she invented the story and is incapable of having a child because her Fallopian tubes were removed a few years ago.
Medical records show that Snyder, who is mentally retarded and has a record of prostitution, is telling the truth about the operation. A "record of operation" from the Sweetwater (Tenn.) Hospital Association shows that Snyder had both of her Fallopian tubes surgically removed in 1988, when she was 16.
That operation, called a bilateral salpingectomy, almost makes it impossible for a woman to give birth, local obstetricians say.
"I think for a woman to get pregnant without her Fallopian tubes is practically impossible. . . . I've never seen it happen," said Dr. Robert Irvin, former head of obstetrics and gynecology at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Irvin, who still is an obstetrician on staff at Roanoke Memorial, added, "It would be extremely rare, very, very rare. Something like that is possible but very, very improbable."
Dr. Elizabeth Smith, an obstetrician at Roanoke Memorial, agreed. "I'd never say never. But it would be extremely rare."
Assistant Roanoke Public Defender Steve Milani said Snyder should be freed and the charges dropped because of the records.
"Clearly, she's not the mother of the baby that was found," he said.
But prosecutor Anthony said she plans to hold Snyder based on the confession unless genetic tests prove beyond a doubt that Snyder is not the mother.
"Her statement is a substantial part of our case until the tests come back," she said. Genetic tests comparing Snyder's blood to samples taken from Baby Isaiah - the name the little boy was given by nurses before he died - have been given top priority at the state testing lab, she said. But priority means mid-April, and Public Defender Ray Leven said that at a minimum, Snyder should be freed without bond while the prosecution waits for the genetic tests.
The tests are of DNA, a molecule found in chromosomes that carry the body's genetic information. The molecules are even more unique than fingerprints and only identical twins have the same DNA structure.
Leven said police and prosecutors have known for days that Snyder's Fallopian tubes were removed and that she most likely could not be the mother. Nevertheless, he said, they are saying, "To hell with the facts; full speed ahead."
It's not fair or just for Snyder to be jailed on the basis of a confession she now disavows, Leven said.
"People confess to things all the time that they're not guilty of," he said.
The medical report on her Fallopian-tube removal also indicates Snyder had other physical problems that make it "obvious that this patient would probably never become pregnant." The nature of those problems is not clear from the report. Leven said he does not know but is trying to find out.
Anthony said her decision to hold Snyder is based on the evidence that is available. "To my knowledge, we don't know that she can't get pregnant. . . . We do know she had an operation that reduces her chances of being pregnant."
She said she has no idea what the medical probability might be for Snyder to become pregnant with her Fallopian tubes removed.
Anthony said she wants to keep Snyder in jail for now because of her confession, the "heinous nature of the crime" and the possibility of her leaving Roanoke.
by CNB