THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230065
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 108 lines
A jury rejected a prosecutor's pleas to convict a 15-year-old girl of first-degree murder in the death of her 4-week-old daughter, and instead found her guilty of felony child abuse Thursday.
Felicia Freeman, who could have received life in prison for first-degree murder, now faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. She could also be sentenced to a juvenile correctional center until she turns 21 for the violent death of her baby, Tykira Freeman.
Freeman, who was arrested on her 15th birthday, is being held at the Tidewater Detention Home without bond, pending her sentencing.
Tykira died May 17 after paramedics responded to a 911 call from Freeman and found the baby severely injured. No one witnessed what happened to the baby.
Freeman gave conflicting statements of the incident to police, and during the trial she blamed the baby's father for the girl's death. But the father, Donte Young, 17, said he wasn't even in the home when the baby was injured.
During her three-day trial, Freeman, a slender, soft-spoken teen, testified that she took good care of her daughter, who was born April 17 when Freeman was 14 years old.
Freeman lived with her mother and four siblings. She was a homebound student because of complications with her pregnancy, but she was about to be promoted to the ninth grade.
``She was a sweet baby,'' Freeman testified. ``I'd hold her when she needed to be holded.''
Freeman described her daughter's daily routine of feedings, diapering and cleanings, interspersed with visits from Young, who lived nearby.
The baby, who was just beginning to lift its head up, would sleep in her bed with her and rarely cried, she said.
But the teen-ager accused Young of being violent in their relationship - which he denied.
On the day of the baby's death, Freeman told jurors Wednesday, Young was alone in the bedroom with their daughter while she was in the kitchen.
``I heard a loud noise,'' she said. ``It sounded like he was throwing her against my headboard.''
Then, she said, she heard Tykira's cry, and then another loud noise, followed by silence.
``I saw my baby lying in the middle of the bed,'' Freeman said. ``She was turning different colors.''
But Young testified in Circuit Court that when he came later in the day to visit the baby, Freeman appeared at the door with the injured child in her arms.
He said he told her to call 911.
``What am I going to hurt my own daughter for?'' he said Young said in an interview after the trial. ``I was angry.''
``I didn't want to be like some fathers,'' he said. ``My Daddy ain't here with me now, and I didn't want my child to be like that.''
Jurors listened to the recording of a 911 tape that replayed Freeman's frantic cries for help on the telephone and explanation that the baby had fallen from the bed.
When medics arrived on May 17, they found the 9 1/2 pound baby, unconscious and badly bruised with brain matter coming from its nose, one medic testified. The baby was taken to Maryview Hospital.
``I have no eyewitnesses,'' said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Helivi Holland, ``but I do have a baby who has multiple fractures to her head. . . and a blackened eye.''
An autopsy of the baby showed no evidence of long-term injuries or shaken baby syndrome. However, there was evidence of severe diaper rash, several bruises, a gash above the baby's left ear, two fractured ribs and multiple skull fractures - unlikely injuries from a fall from a bed, a medical examiner testified.
``There was blunt-force trauma, which means that the baby actually had to be banged against something or thrown against something with force more than once,'' Holland said in an interview after the trial. ``She had multiple fractures in her head, so it had to have been several hits.
``Felony child abuse means that she caused serious injury to a child that was in her care and custody,'' Holland said. But ``she was guilty of a murder and not of abuse and neglect.''
According to police, Freeman gave detectives several inconsistent statements. Initially, she told police the baby had fallen from her bed. In another statement, she told detectives that she had put her baby into a tub too hard and had shaken the baby's legs too hard, and that the baby had hit her head on a metal chair. She also told the police she shook the baby violently.
But Freeman's lawyer, Ashley Keesee, argued in court that Freeman had given the conflicting statements because Young had threatened her.
``Felicia Freeman never harmed that baby in any way,'' Keesee said. ``And she certainly did not kill that child.''
One juror, who asked not to be identified, said after the trial, ``There was neglect there to begin with. . . evident in the whole case.''
The juror also said that the teen did not appear well-equipped to be a parent and did not appear to have enough family support.
There are about 1 million teen-age pregnancies a year in the United States. In 1994, Virginia saw more than 16,000 teen pregnancies. About 500 of those pregnant teens were under the age of 15, according to the latest statistics released by the U.S. Health Department.
Portsmouth, in 1994, had 507 teen pregnancies - the third highest number in Hampton Roads. Only 26 of those teens were under the age of 15. Virginia Beach ranked first with 1,114 teen pregnancies and Norfolk ranked second with 1,105 teen pregnancies.
``It is a problem in this area,'' said Dr. Polly C. Vaughan, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
``The risk factors which are present in abuse cases are certainly common among teenage pregnancy, which places them at a higher risk,'' Vaughan said.
``Because of their young age, they definitely have decreased life coping skills, and that's just a factor of their age and immaturity,'' she said. ``Often, teen parents are from homes which have inadequate support structures.''
KEYWORDS: MURDER FELONY CHILD ABUSE CONVICTION TEENAGE
PREGNANCY by CNB