HEATH RYDER - 11 Months - Chambersburg PA

http://www.windstream.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9MU1ESG0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=931

"CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A 10-year-old central Pennsylvania girl who allegedly caused a baby's death by violently shaking him and throwing him into a crib was charged with third-degree murder."...

Poster's Note: Entire article from link above

A 10-year-old central Pennsylvania girl who allegedly caused a
baby's death by violently shaking him and throwing him into a crib was
charged with third-degree murder.The charges filed against the
fifth-grader on Friday in Franklin County came after a coroner's inquest
into the death of 11-month-old Heath Ryder. The girl was released into
the custody of her parents and ordered not to have unsupervised contact
with children under 5."This is not a kid that has a mental health
disorder. She does not have a personality disorder," the girl's
attorney, Jason Kutulakis, told The Public Opinion of Chambersburg. "She
is not a bad person. She has no history of behavioral problems or
school problems."Also charged Friday was 56-year-old Dottie
Bowers, who was babysitting both children at her home near Shippensburg,
Pa., when the shaking allegedly occurred on July 29.Bowers was
charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a
child for allegedly failing to seek medical care for the infant. Ryder
died of traumatic brain injury at a hospital on Aug. 2."Our goal
is to work with the police and find out what really happened," said
Bowers' lawyer, Joseph Caraciolo. "When Dottie has her chance, she will
tell her story."A judge immediately transferred the girl's case
to juvenile court, where records are sealed. Pennsylvania law requires
murder charges to be initiated in adult court regardless of the
defendant's age, according District Attorney Matthew Fogal, who
supported moving the case to juvenile court. The suspect was 9 when the
baby was injured.The Public Opinion reports that all charges were
in line with a jury's recommendations after a two-day inquest held in
mid-April. The proceedings included testimony from police, the infant's
parents and another girl who was in Bowers' care at the time.The
baby's father, Mark Ryder, said following the inquest that he wanted the
suspect punished for what happened to his son. He declined comment
after charges were filed Friday.

Family of 10-month-old killed in babysitter's care: 'Justice was served'

Published: Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 6:51 PM Updated: Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 9:33 PM

After close to two years, Shelly and Mark Ryder said they have found a
measure of justice in the death of their infant son, Heath.

In
a packed Franklin County courthouse Wednesday morning, they watched in
silence as Dottie Bowers, the 57-year-old woman who was 10-month-old
Heath’s caregiver on the day of his death, was sentenced to 6 to 23 months in prison for child endangerment.



View full sizeRyder family photoHeath
Conrad Ryder, died August 2, 2010, at age 10 months and 22 days. Heath
was the son of Mark and Shelly Ryder, of Fannett Twp., Franklin County.Bowers
was watching Heath and other children on Aug. 2, 2010, when a
9-year-old girl allegedly hurled the baby into his crib so hard he
suffered a brain injury and died. That girl is in the juvenile justice
system in a case that’s ongoing, authorities said.

In
tearful testimony the Ryders urged Judge Carol Van Horn to hold Bowers
accountable for her inaction that day. According to police reports,
Bowers never called 911 after finding that Heath was breathing oddly in
his crib.

“It was a tragic event ... that never should have
happened,” Shelly Ryder told Van Horn. “I watched my baby dying for four
days ... and I can’t understand why.”

Bowers had worked as a
baby sitter watching children in the community for 28 years, and took
care of Heath while the Ryders both worked during the day. Heath was in
crib in a basement room alone when the incident occurred.

Police
say a girl and her friend went in and picked him up. Based on an
interview of a then 8-year-old witness, Heath was passed back and forth
and shaken before being thrown back into his crib by the child charged
with the death, prosecutors allege.

According to her
attorney, Bowers did not call for an ambulance because was paralyzed by
panic when she found Health. Instead, she repeatedly attempted to call
Shelly Ryder. It was Shelly Ryder who called 911, after arriving at
Bowers’ home 57 minutes later to find her son in duress. In court,
Shelly said Bowers refused to assist her, and she had to stop giving
Heath CPR long enough to call for an ambulance with her own cell phone.
Heath was rushed by emergency officials to the Penn State Hershey S. Medical Center, where he later died.

After
the sentencing, the Ryders said they may never know what actually took
place that afternoon, but they found some justice in Bowers’ sentencing.


“I think justice was served,” Shelly Ryder said. “I think the judge did an excellent, professional job today.”

When
he spoke during the hearing, Mark Ryder nearly broke down, pausing
several times to regain his composure. He spoke of the family’s loss and
his four-year-old son’s trouble in coming to terms with his brother’s
death.

“It’s been all but two years, and every day ... it
hasn’t gotten easier,” he said, saying Heath’s brother constantly asks
him when Heath will be coming home.

“I can’t get this in my
head, how this could happen,” Mark Ryder said. “I pray everyday for
justice for my son. ... There’s just no excuse. [Bowers] is responsible
for the household.”

In her defense, Bowers’ attorney Joseph Caraciolo said he client was panicked and stunned to inaction.

“She panicked ... it was simply panic,” Caraciolo said. “But panic didn’t cause the injury.”

Caraciolo further said a doctor who testified last year it was impossible to know if the delay mattered.

“She recognizes what she did was wrong,” he said. “She is here to take responsibility.”

Both
Caraciolo and Bowers’ family asked the judge not to send her to prison,
but to instead sentence her to probation. They pled for leniency,
pointing out that Bowers cooperated with authorities and the fact she
pled “no contest” to the charge of child endangerment.

When she spoke, Bowers told the judge she was “extremely sorry” for what happened.

“This
has not been easy to deal with,” she said in a quiet voice, standing
before the judge. “He has been on my mind every minute of every day.”

Her
son, Dave Bowers Jr., told Van Horn the death of Health “has taken a
toll on her ... and has destroyed her life.” He and other family members
said since that afternoon Bowers has lived in a prison of her own
making.

Lisa Nye, Bowers’ niece, said Bowers will “have to
live with this tragedy for the rest of her life,” and has both lost
weight and faced health issues stemming from the incident.
Neither of the Ryders said they found solace in Bowers’ family’s
statements that she has resided in a prison of her own making since that
fateful afternoon.

“Her family has watched her ‘waste away’
... We as a family watched our son die.” said Shelly after the
sentencing. “I know it doesn’t bring Heath back, but it is a little bit
of closure.”

While the case against Bowers has drawn to a
close, the case against the 10-year-old girl accused of killing Heath
remains active, said District Attorney Matthew Fogal.

The
unidentified girl was charged with third-degree murder. Her case is
moving through the county’s juvenile court system and is closed to the
public.

Fogal would only say it was “ongoing.”

In
sentencing Bowers, Van Horn said it was not the criminal justice
system’s purpose to provide closure or forgiveness, but to hold people
accountable for their actions, or in Bowers’ case, inaction.

She did, however, recognize that Bowers was not likely to re-offend, and did accept responsibility for her inaction.

“However, 57 minutes is a long time to be ‘frozen,’” Van Horn said. “Many opportunities were lost in those 57 minutes.”

She went on to describe Bowers inaction as a “inexcusable failure to act.”

“There’s
an inability to reconcile your character with your inaction,” she told
Bowers, before concluding that “incarceration is appropriate to provide
accountability for you, and the victim and his family.”
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/04/family_of_10-month-old_killed.html

Case against 10-year-old girl charged in baby's death is transferred to juvenile court

April 29, 2011
Charged with third-degree homicide, the suspect, barely 4 feet tall,
went before Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Carol Van Horn as
an adult and, after a hearing Friday morning, left as a juvenile.
The
10-year-old Shippensburg, Pa., girl was charged as an adult in the
death of 10-month-old Heath Conrad Ryder, who died on Aug. 2, 2010,
after sustaining head trauma on July 29 while at his baby-sitter's home,
according to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Pennsylvania
State Police.
The baby sitter, Dottie Mae Bowers, 56, of 127
Bennelton Drive, Shippensburg, was charged Friday with involuntary
manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.
She was
arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Todd R. Williams, who
released her on an unsecured $50,000 bond on the condition that she not
provide any day care or baby-sitting services while the case is pending.
The girl's preliminary arraignment was held before Van Horn, but
defense attorney Jason P. Kutulakis told the judge he filed a petition
to have the girl "decertified" as an adult so that her case could be
transferred to juvenile court.
District Attorney Matthew D. Fogal said earlier he believed juvenile court was appropriate and would not oppose the motion.
The
girl was released to her parents' custody on the condition she have no
unsupervised contact with children under the age of 5.
Homicide
charges must be initiated in adult court in Pennsylvania, and a person
of any age can be charged, Fogal said before the hearing.
Children
between the ages of 10 and 18 can be adjudicated as delinquents in
juvenile court, but a child under 10 may be adjudicated as a dependent
child, a status that allows for treatment and court supervision, but not
detention, he said.
The girl was about two weeks short of her 10th birthday when the incident occurred, Fogal said.
On
July 29, 2010, police went to Chambersburg Hospital for a report of a
child with a head injury, the affidavit said. A doctor told police that
Heath Ryder's parents said the baby was hurt in a fall at his
baby-sitter's home, but he thought the injuries were inconsistent with a
fall, the document said.
Heath had surgery at Hershey (Pa.)
Medical Center, but died on Aug. 2 of blunt force head trauma, according
to the autopsy. A coroner's inquest was held two weeks ago during which
both Bowers and the girl invoked the Fifth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, which protects a person from self-incrimination, Franklin
County Coroner Jeffrey R. Conner said.
In December, police twice
interviewed another child who was also in Bowers' care, the affidavit
said. She told police she saw the girl who was charged "shaking the
victim in an up and down motion" before throwing him into a playpen.
But the girl who was charged was interviewed in December and told
police the other girl picked up Heath out of the playpen and tossed him
at her, the affidavit said. The suspect said she put Heath back in the
playpen, but the other girl picked him up and tossed him back to her
several times, the document said.
On the afternoon of July 29,
Bowers called Heath's mother Shelly Ryder telling her Heath was
"breathing funny and would not wake up," the affidavit said. Ryder told
Bowers to call 911, but Bowers had not by the time the mother arrived,
and Ryder made the call on her cell phone.
Bowers told police she
put Heath down for a nap at 1:15 p.m., but was unable to wake him at
2:50 p.m., the affidavit said. Bowers said she tried to call Shelly
Ryder several times, the document said.
Ryder's cell phone records
showed Bowers called 11 times between 3:26 p.m. to 3:37 p.m. when she
finally reached her, the affidavit said.
A doctor at Hershey
Medical Center told investigators that "in addition to the traumatic
injury to the brain caused by the shaking, his brain was also deprived
of oxygen because the victim was not breathing properly," the affidavit
said.
The doctor told police "had 911 been called earlier, the victim's chances of survival would have been greatly increased."
http://articles.herald-mail.com/2011-04-29/news/29489463_1_juvenile-court-baby-sitter-homicide-charges

A kid accused of killing another kid. Not by accident. Investigators in
Franklin County say a fifth-grade girl threw an 11-month-old boy so hard
that it caused a brain injury that killed the infant.


View full sizeThe Patriot-NewsHeath
Conrad Ryder, died August 2, 2010, at age 10 months and 22 days. Heath
was the son of Mark and Shelly Ryder, of Fannett Twp., Franklin County.Murder, prosecutors say, by a 9-year-old.

This case, like others in which children are accused of abominable crimes, is complex and delicate.

Almost
immediately after she was charged with third-degree murder, the
now-10-year-old Shippensburg girl’s case was moved to juvenile court.
Her attorney is compiling a mound of evidence he thinks will destroy the
prosecution’s case against his young client, but even if she is
convicted, it’s unlikely she’ll face any hard time.

The only
adult involved is a 56-year-old baby sitter, who faces a misdemeanor
reckless-endangerment charge. And the prime witness to the crime is an
8-year-old girl.

Franklin County girl, 10, faces third-degree murder charge in death of infant

All this leaves Mark and Shelly Ryder
questioning whether anyone will be held accountable for the July 29,
2010, death of their baby, Heath, the youngest of three boys. His
remains are in a wooden Noah’s Ark box on the mantle of their Franklin
County home.

“He was a very good baby, a great baby,” Shelly Ryder says. “He had a very outgoing personality for as little as he was.”

Shelly and her husband Mark Ryder are trying to grieve, but it hasn’t been easy.

First, they were told they were the prime suspects. Then, for six months, they believed a baby sitter they hired was to blame.
In December, a coroner’s inquest recommended charges. They were shocked
to hear investigators say that a girl — in the same grade and school as
their oldest son — was responsible for their infant’s death.

“It
doesn’t help that I have to relive the day over and over again,” Shelly
Ryder says. “I try to put my best foot forward, but we live in a small
town, in Amberson Valley, we have to pass the church every day, where we
had the funeral. My 3-year-old says, ‘Mama, Brother’s in there? Is he
going to wake up? Is he coming home?’”
More:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/06/franklin_county_girl_10_faces.html