Woman didn't conspire to kill her newborn son
Published Saturday November 21st, 2009
Justice: Both Crown and defence agree Sarah Marie Russell wanted to keep her child
ST. STEPHEN - Sarah Marie Russell didn't take steps to steps to protect the child she was carrying, Crown and defence lawyers said Friday.
Russell, 19 at the time she gave birth to a son at home in Moores Mills in January, will return to St. Stephen provincial court Jan. 25 to continue her sentencing hearing on a charge of criminal negligence causing death.
On Oct. 1 her common-law husband Rodney Stuart Miller, 27 at the time of the baby's birth, pleaded guilty to first degree murder for stabbing the newborn through the heart and liver with a kitchen knife.
Justice Hugh H. McLellan sentenced him to the mandatory life sentence with no right to parole for 25 years.
The Crown originally charged Russell with manslaughter and being an accessory after the fact to murder but, on Monday, she pleaded guilty to the single charge of criminal negligence causing death. Judge David Walker then ordered Russell to return to court Friday morning when Crown prosecutor Randy DiPaolo and defence lawyer Randall Wilson presented the facts of the case.
Between now and Jan. 25 a probation officer will prepare a pre-sentence report and a psychologist will prepare an assessment of Russell. The judge will read a transcript and listen to a DVD recording of the RCMP interview with Russell.
The Crown accepts the defence's contention that Russell wanted this child and didn't conspire with Miller to commit murder - contrary to "completely inaccurate" talk in the community and some news reports, her lawyer said.
However, Wilson accepts the argument by DiPaolo and prosecutor James McAvity that Russell denied to social workers, friends and family she was pregnant.
She didn't take advantage of many opportunities to leave her husband even after she knew that Miller intended to harm the child, Wilson conceded.
The social workers who supervised visits with the couple noted Russell's increasing girth but she continued to deny the obvious, DiPaolo said.
The fact that the RCMP charged Miller with aggravated assault against another child should have alerted Russell to the danger, especially combined with Miller's statements that the child on the way would not survive, the Crown argued.
Earlier this week the Crown decided not to prosecute this charge because it would serve no purpose following the sentence for murder.
Discussions among staff in the office of the provincial Attorney General as well as negotiations with Wilson led to the decision to withdraw the original charges and accept a plea of guilty to criminal negligence causing death, DiPaolo said.
To support the charge of being an accessory after the fact, the Crown had only the killer's words that Russell helped dispose of Baby Russell's body.
The prosecutors don't trust Miller's statements concerning Russell. "To rely on his words against Sarah Russell, the Crown will not do that," DiPaolo said.
In the end, the Crown accepted the plea of guilty to criminal negligence causing death. "The count of manslaughter was based on criminal negligence," DiPaolo said, describing the difference as "somewhat a matter of semantics." In either case, the judge could sentence Russell to as much as life in prison.
During a supervised visit with social workers on Jan. 15, Russell denied she was pregnant even after one of the workers saw a movement in Russell's belly that she took to be the baby kicking.
By this time social worker Sara Thompson had notified hospitals in Health Region 2, as well as in Calais, Maine and the RCMP, to let her know if Russell showed up, intending to seize the baby at birth.
Russell was a 17-year-old St. Stephen High School student when she moved in with Miller, eight years her senior. Soon after, social workers became involved in the couple's life. Russell separated from Miller at one point, but the social workers were informed on March 14 that she'd moved back in with him. The social workers feared that Russell would get pregnant. Thompson first noted the suspicious gain in weight during a supervised visit July 28, 2008.
On Jan. 19 Miller left Thompson a voicemail that he and Russell would miss a scheduled visit because they didn't feel well. When they did come Jan. 22, "Sarah Russell no longer appeared pregnant," DiPaolo said.
Social workers and RCMP officers found nobody at home when they visited the Moores Mills residence Jan. 23. They returned Jan. 24 when Russell stayed under her bedcovers, and Miller offered to co-operate in a search. The social workers still hoped to find a live baby.
Russell admitted some of the truth in an interview with an RCMP officer at the Social Development office on Jan. 29. "She put her head in her hands and commenced to cry," DiPaolo said. She told the officer that Baby Russell was born dead, that Miller took the body.
The RCMP arrested Russell and Miller. The doctor determined from the autopsy that Baby Russell was born alive. Miller admitted this to the RCMP.
"It's our position that Sarah Russell wanted this child," the defence lawyer said. She visited a website on midwifery "to safely deliver that child."
They rejected the advice of a neighbour to seek medical attention and have the child in a hospital.
"Initially Rodney Miller wanted this child," Wilson said, but later two strands of thought "converged in Rodney Miller's mind." Russell seemed "scared of Miller" in her recorded interview with the RCMP.
"Did you have any doubt in your mind that when you had this baby, Rodney Miller was going to kill it?" DiPaolo cited the RCMP officer from the transcript of the interview. "No," Russell replied.
The social workers and RCMP officers found no items at the Moores Mills residence one would expect with a baby on the way, DiPaolo said.
His client "should have gotten herself out of this situation," Wilson said.
Russell continues to live at the home of her parents under conditions imposed at a bail hearing on March 27.
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