DEREK DENNISON - 7 months - (2010) /Convicted, mother Miranda Todd - Lisbon OH

Todd sentenced to 18 years to life

June 23, 2012

Morning Journal News

LISBON - Still maintaining she did not kill her baby Derek
Dennison, Miranda Todd, 24, was sentenced to 18 years to life by Judge
Scott Washam in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, Friday.

Todd did not take the stand in her own defense, but did make a statement prior to sentencing.

"I know what I did was wrong," Todd read, "Contrary to what (Assistant
Prosecutor) Mr. (Tim) McNicol said, I do take responsibility for my
actions. I was judged for things I never did and things I never said...
This case is not solved. There is a killer on the streets."

Todd also said there have been many people she has been "very nasty
to." She apologized to Valerie Dennison, the sister of Greg Dennison,
who was in the courtroom. Additionally, Todd apologized to her children
without giving their names, stating she felt like she had failed them,
and then she apologized to Derek.

"Assuredly I did not inflict
any injury on my son," Todd said, adding she will make the best of
wherever she is sent to serve her time, but this was not justice for
Derek. "The person who inflicted the injuries on my son still walks."

While Todd faced a mandatory 15 years to life sentence for murder, Washam had
the decision on counts two and three, which she was also found guilty
of by the jury last week. Count two, involuntary manslaughter, was by
agreement of both the prosecutors and defense attorneys merged with the
murder conviction. The endangering children charge, count three, carried up to a three-year prison sentence. Not surprisingly,
McNicol asked for the three years to be served in addition to the 15 to
life sentence, while Todd's attorney, Jennifer Gorby, requested her
client be allowed to serve it concurrently with the other sentence.

Washam ordered it be served consecutively to the time served for murder. Todd
was granted credit for the 544 days she has already served in the
Columbiana County Jail. She will be transferred to the Ohio Reformatory
for Women in Marysville.
Gorby indicated during the hearing an
appeal will be filed in the case. After the hearing, defense attorney
Charley Kidder said there are at least three issues being considered for
appeal, which he expects they will be filing sometime next week.

Todd was not the only one to make a statement. Prior to sentencing, Valerie
Dennison, read a statement on behalf of the family, a statement Gorby
objected to as "inflammatory" in the middle of it being read. Dennison
was allowed to continue reading from Derek Dennison's perspective she
noted how he loved to be held and talked to. She described how Todd left
his family, taking Derek with her and moving to a place where there
were people he did not know.

"Some say I was too special for this
earth," Valerie Dennison said, adding that during his "endless" sleep
the baby would never know what his life could have become. She asked
Washam for the maximum sentence. "It will not bring our baby back, but
it will be the closest thing to justice Derek will ever know."

Todd's mother, Melinda Todd, and grandmother, Rita Heim, who both testified
against her during the trial, on Friday asked Washam for leniency.

"She is guilty of a lot of things," said Melinda Todd, "But I don't believe
murder is one of them. I believe in her. I love her. I already lost one,
and I'm not ready to lose another."

Todd's brother was not in the court room, but Melinda Todd said although he and Miranda Todd have
not gotten along in the past, he did come to Lisbon in support of his sister.

Heim also contended Miranda Todd's innocence, noting she spent a lot of time with her when she was growing up.
"I've never seen her touch a child, let alone hit one," Heim said.

"There were three people in that house," she added, referring to Todd's
roommates she was involved with sexually during the last few weeks of
Derek's life. "I think Miranda lived in a horrid place. Neglect, yes she
neglected that child. But I've never seen her become angry toward any child."

After the hearing, Valerie Dennison said it has been
nearly two years since Derek died, and with the trial and sentencing it
felt "like he died all over again."

She said when Todd was
pregnant with Derek and looking at adoption as an option, she had
offered to adopt him and so had a friend who could not have any
children. She still questions why Todd would not give up Derek when she
had left her older son Cole with Melinda Todd and her daughter Aubrey
with Greg Dennison.

Todd had lived with Greg Dennison and other
members of the family prior to moving to the North Ellsworth Avenue
address in Salem only weeks before Derek's death. Valerie Dennison said
it was still hard to understand how someone they had known for so long,
someone who lived with them and spent time with their children, could do
something like this.


http://www.morningjournalnews.com/page/content.detail/id/540926/Todd-sentenced-to-18-years-to-life.html