THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 4, 1995 TAG: 9501040421
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Elizabeth E. Fox, following the strange, toylike cry, looked into the baby stroller expecting a fussy infant. Instead, she saw what looked like a concentration-camp victim.
It was tiny Christopher N. Herrera, then 5 months old but weighing little more than a newborn at 9 pounds, 6 1/2 ounces.
He was almost hidden from view, squeezed sideways behind his 2-year-old sister while his mother bought a bra-and-panty set at a discount lingerie store.
``It was a terrible wailing, rattling type of cry,'' Fox testified Tuesday in Circuit Court on the first day of a felony child-neglect trial of Christopher's parents.
``He was very emaciated,'' Fox said, trying to stifle a sob. ``I have seen a lot of sick children . . . but I have never seen a child like this. I was very upset. He looked like an Auschwitz survivor.
``His skin color was ashen. You could see all the bones in his face. And his hands were just teeny. . . . He was just too thin to be that old. It was shocking.''
Also shocked was Terry L. Rosenthal, a regional manager for the lingerie store, Bare Necessities on Virginia Beach Boulevard. She spotted Christopher's sunken eyes and crusted, runny nose.
``Snow white - the color,'' she testified. ``He had absolutely no color. He looked like somebody had pulled white skin over a skeleton.
``I'd never seen anything like it, except on CARE ads on TV or something. .
Both women said they were too upset to ignore the boy's condition. Fox, an assistant city attorney, called police, and Rosenthal produced the $10 check with the mother's name and address.
By nightfall that May 6, Christopher was hospitalized in the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.
A few weeks later his parents were charged with felony child neglect, accused of almost starving their son to death.
Christopher went from the hospital to a foster home. But less than five months later, Social Services recommended that he be returned to his parents before the trial.
This caused the foster parents to quit the city program in disgust. The boy's court-appointed guardian protested, as did prosecutors who are trying to put the parents in jail. Social Services officials said sending the boy home was in his best interests and arranged training classes and in-home help for the parents.
On Tuesday in court, Martin Herrera Jr., 21, and his wife, Karen E. Herrera, 20, stared at the women as they testified, he unblinking in his dark-blue Navy uniform, she slightly shaking her head sideways in a black-and-pink-flowered dress with lace collar.
The young couple held hands throughout the first day of the expected three-day jury trial that could send them to prison for 10 years if they're convicted.
In their opening statements to the jury, defense attorneys for the Herreras said there were no outward signs of abuse, and the parents thought their son was recovering, albeit slowly, from surgery for an intestinal blockage that kept him from gaining weight during his first two months.
``She took the child out,'' said Elizabeth R. Gold, who represents Karen Herrera. ``She did not try to hide the child. She thought he was doing better.
``Mothering is not a perfect profession. . . . That's not criminal child neglect.''
But doctors who testified Tuesday said Christopher was starving, despite his parents' claims that they were feeding him 48 to 64 ounces of formula each day, plus oatmeal and rice cereal.
Dr. David M. Norris, chairman of the Pediatrics Department at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, said children Christopher's age eat an average of 35 ounces a day and need only 32 ounces a day to gain weight.
The average 5-month-old weighs about 16 pounds, with rounded buttocks and chubby arms and legs.
Christopher, at 9 pounds 6 1/2 ounces, had a distended stomach, spindly limbs and buttocks that were little more than flat folds of bluish-colored flesh.
``When I asked how he could come to be so small, their explanation was they were both small as children,'' said Dr. Christine M. Jolly, who examined the boy at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.
KEYWORDS: CHILD ABUSE CHILD NEGLECT TRIAL by CNB