Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503270070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEESBURG LENGTH: Medium
The nine-woman, three-man panel deadlocked after nearly seven hours of deliberations.
Anna-Corina Peeze, 19, of Amsterdam, is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of 8-week-old Brenton Scott Devonshire.
Loudoun County Circuit Judge Thomas D. Horne scheduled a new trial for April 20. Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Barbara Walker said she would prosecute Peeze on the same charge.
Walker said that Peeze violently shook the child when he would not stop crying on Aug. 2. Doctors said the shaking slammed the baby's brain into his skull, and he died in a hospital four days later.
But in closing arguments Friday, defense attorney Rodney G. Leffler told the jury of nine women and three men there is no evidence Peeze harmed the child. He said he doesn't dispute the cause of the child's death, but said there is reasonable doubt that Peeze committed the act.
``She had to get crazed, shake this baby to death, then recede to a happy, normal self when the father got home,'' Leffler said. ``Severe as these injuries are they would have manifested themselves immediately.''
Peeze has pleaded innocent. She could face 10 years in prison if convicted.
According to testimony, the only other person alone with Brenton the day of the shaking was his father, Stephen Devonshire. He testified that he was briefly alone with the baby that evening when his wife, Sharon, and Peeze went on a shopping trip. He denies shaking the baby.
Walker said that while evidence was circumstantial, Peeze was the only person with the infant during the afternoon when the shaking likely occurred. Doctors have been unable to pinpoint a specific time of day the baby was shaken.
Brenton's doctors said the baby's brain rammed his skull at 30 to 60 times the normal force of gravity. Fighter pilots pass out at 61/2 times the force of gravity, they said.
Leffler challenged the Devonshires during the two-day trial about why they did not take the infant to the hospital sooner. The couple said they thought their son was only sleeping until several hours after they returned home from work when Stephen Devonshire found the baby was clammy and unresponsive.
by CNB