Sentenced: Mother Says Severely Malnourished, Dehydrated 3YO Died Choking On Bread

[Sugar Cookie]

A Henrico County mother pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old son, who succumbed last year from complications of neglect, malnourishment and dehydration. The child weighed 21 pounds at death, which is in excess of 95% less of other male toddlers that age in the U.S.

Had the case gone to trial, witnesses would have testified that Teresa Richelle Anderson, 31, “continued to keep [the child] in her custody despite her documented inability to care for him,” Assistant Henrico Commonwealth’s Alison Martin, who is prosecuting the case, told the court in summary of facts.

When Anderson brought her child, Saint Michael Domenic Taylor, to Retreat Hospital in Richmond on April 19, 2022, the boy was “clearly dead and already cold to the touch,” the prosecutor said.

When asked for details on how the child died, Anderson stated that he choked on a piece of bread.

But after an autopsy was conducted, Dr. Renee Robinson with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Saint Michael’s cause of death was due to complications of neglect and malnourishment/dehydration. That finding, working together with an inflicted blunt force injury the child sustained to the head, resulted in Robinson ruling the boy’s manner of death as homicide, Martin told the court.

A police investigation established that Anderson, a single mother with two other children, was Saint Michael’s sole caretaker. Investigators learned that she had previously allowed other family members to care for the boy, and during those periods, his body mass index was completely normal although he did experience some developmental delays.

After the child’s death was ruled a homicide, additional investigation was done, and “Anderson was unable to offer any history that could explain the blunt force injury to Saint Michael, “especially not the injury to the skull that was documented,” Martin said.

Anderson has two other children, including a baby that was born shortly before Saint Michael died. She has no prior criminal history.

Under the terms of her plea agreement, Anderson is barred from having any physical contact with her surviving children but is permitted to have letters, packages, phone calls, FaceTime or contact by other electronic means as permitted by the Henrico Department of Social Services.

Henrico toddler who died weighed 21 pounds

Teresa Richelle Anderson, 31, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old son, who succumbed last year from complications of neglect, malnourishment and dehydration.

richmond.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Teresa Richelle Anderson

Location - Fluvanna Correctional Center

• Release Date 05/26/2037

 

[GoneWest]

Teresa Richelle Anderson

Location - Fluvanna Correctional Center

• Release Date 05/26/2037

“Had the case gone to trial, witnesses would have testified that Teresa Richelle Anderson, 31, “continued to keep [the child] in her custody despite her documented inability to care for him,” Assistant Henrico Commonwealth’s Alison Martin, who is prosecuting the case, told the court in summary of facts.”

My question is, why was she continued to be allowed to keep him in her custody if they had documentation showing her inability to care for him?