Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240134
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEESBURG LENGTH: Medium
Steven and Sharon Devonshire testified in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Anna-Corina Peeze that at first they thought their son was simply sleeping when they returned home from work last August. But several hours later, Steven Devonshire said, he picked up 8-week-old Brenton and found him cold and unresponsive.
``I never really saw anything like this before,'' Steven Devonshire said slowly, explaining how at first he thought Brenton had experienced a bad reaction to a baby formula or had a cold.
But Peeze's attorney, Rodney G. Leffler, repeatedly asked the couple why they waited so long to take the child to the hospital. He told the jury of nine women and three men that he doesn't dispute that the child was shaken to death, but said there is no evidence Peeze committed the act.
Prosecutor Barbara Walker said that Peeze, 19, was left to look after Brenton while his parents were at work and fiercely shook the baby in frustration when he would not stop crying.
The baby died four days later of injuries caused by his brain repeatedly slamming into his skull, doctors said. Peeze was the only person with the child when he was injured, Walker said. Sharon Devonshire said the baby seemed asleep when her husband, an engineer for Martin Marietta Corp., came home around 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 2. Brenton still seemed to be sleeping when she got home around 6:30 p.m., she said.
She said nothing seemed amiss until about 8 p.m. when she and Peeze returned from a brief shopping trip and found Stephen Devonshire looking puzzled and holding their clammy, unresponsive son.
``I knew something wasn't right, but I didn't know what it was,'' she said in a small but calm voice. While the couple tried to determine what was wrong with their child, Peeze kept saying, ``It was just a normal day'' and ``nothing happened,'' Sharon Devonshire testified.
She said she and her husband had been excited about having a nanny to care for their infant and believed Peeze, who had lived with them for two weeks before the death, had experience in caring for babies. Peeze came to the United States as part of the federal au pair program but listed no formal training in caring for an infant on her application to participate in the program.
``I tried to make it clear to her that Brent was the most important thing to us,'' Sharon Devonshire said.
Leffler said Peeze was a caring and attentive nanny. He said Peeze contacted the Devonshires on a previous occasion to tell them that Brenton was crying and she could do nothing to console him, but the parents did not seem overly concerned.
Leffler also tried to cast doubt about when the shaking occurred. Dr. William Keith Dockery, who treated Brenton at Fairfax Hospital, said the shaking likely occurred between one and six hours before the baby was treated.
``You can't pin it down any better than that?'' Leffler said.
Peeze was jailed briefly after her arrest last August and has pleaded innocent. She could be sentenced to 10 years in prison. She has lived with another Northern Virginia family since her release from jail and has not been allowed to leave the United States, not even for the funeral of her mother late last year.
The trial resumes this morning. Leffler would not comment on whether Peeze would testify in her own defense.
by CNB