"Baby Jane" STILWELL - 7 months (2009) - Charlotte NC

Charlotte NC ---- A woman pleaded
guilty to trying to smother her young daughter in January 2009.Meredith
Stilwell pleaded guilty to felony child abuse, inflicting serious
injury.
Stilwell’s daughter, who is now 2 years old, was born premature. She had
a hole in her heart and some bleeding in her brain, but a doctor who
testified in court Friday said that is not unusual in preemies.When
the child was 7 months old, Stilwell took her to Levine’s Children’s
Hospital and said she had stopped breathing. Dr. Kerry Van Voorhis, from
Levine’s Children’s Hospital, testified that they ran hundreds of tests
to try to determine why the child, Alexa, stopped breathing. Results
showed that the hole in her heart had closed on its own and that she had
no brain problems.Their initial diagnosis was extreme reflux,
Van Voorhis said.Stilwell told doctors the episodes in which
Alexa stopped breathing continued, Van Voorhis said, prompting them to
do surgery on the child’s stomach.Van Voorhis said they
eventually realized an episode had never happened when a doctor or nurse
was present and decided to place cameras in the child’s hospital room.“They
were never in the room when it started,” Van Voorhis said. “They would
always find Alexa blue, with her mom there performing CPR.”Van
Voorhis described the video footage to the courtroom. "I saw her
fingers pinch Alexa's nose and put her hand over her face,” Van Voorhis
said. “Alexa was kicking and struggling, trying to get air.”“Mrs.
Stilwell would then put [Alexa] back in bed, wrap her up, then sit in a
chair like nothing happened,” the doctor added. “[The video was] the
most disturbing thing I've ever seen,” Van Voorhis said. “Mrs. Stilwell
would be kissing and comforting Alexa like she was the best mother in
the world.”A defense psychiatrist testified Stilwell is bipolar
and was deluded into thinking her daughter wouldn't thrive without
constant medical attention, which she got by smothering her.Alexa
is healthy now, Scott Stilwell, the toddler’s father and Meredith’s
ex-husband, said.“I'm here for [Alexa],” Scott Stilwell said.
“There's nothing that can repair or replace the damage that's been done
to her. I just want to see justice in some form.”Scott
Stilwell said he wants to ensure that Alexa and the couple’s other
child, a 4-year-old boy, never see their mother again.Friday’s
testimony came in light of a request to consider whether mental illness
is a reason to minimize Stilwell's sentence, which could be in the range
of four to six years.The judge said he will make a decision on
that next week.