
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993                   TAG: 9310220182
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: OAKLAND, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

INFANT BORN TO BRAIN-DEAD MOTHER GIVEN TO COUSIN

An Oakland, Calif., infant born after being carried inside his brain-dead mother for 104 days is not the child of the man with whom his mother had two other children, an Oakland judge has ruled.

Climaxing an emotional custody battle between the family of the dead woman and David Smith, her "on-again, off-again" boyfriend of many years, Alameda Superior Court Referee Mark Kliszewski said DNA tests had proved Smith was not the father of Darious Marshall.

Kliszewski awarded custody of the 11-week-old child to Darious' first cousin, Lorraine Joseph, 23, a relative of the dead mother, Trisha Marshall.

Marshall, 28, was shot in the head April 19 by a man police say she was trying to rob.

Though brain-dead, she was kept on life-support systems at Highland Hospital to carry the then-17-week-old fetus to term.

Darious was born Aug. 3. Respirators and other feeding tubes that had kept the mother alive until the birth were then disconnected.

Smith and his parents sought custody of the baby, as did Marshall's relatives. Smith's paternity was challenged by Marshall's relatives and by hospital and social service workers.

Smith, 32, a cook at the Oakland Coliseum, had two other children by Marshall, Reyna, 2, and Nathaniel, 6. Marshall also had two other children by another man.

Smith said after the decision that he still viewed Darious as part of his family because he is a half-brother to his other two children. "Brothers and sisters should be brothers and sisters," he said.

The identity of Darious' father was not established. - San Francisco Examiner

by CNB