Parents Accused Of Smothering 4-Month-Old Son Released From Jail

The parents accused of smothering their 4-month-old son have been released from jail pending trial, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

William Herring, 42 and Brianna Brochhausen, 22, are accused of killing their son, who suffocated in a Springfield Township motel room in which the family was living back in February, police said.

They were initially arrested in March and charged with child endangerment. They were released pending trial. The charges were upgraded to murder last week, and they were arrested for a second time on July 16.

During a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, their defense attorney successfully argued that the facts of the case haven’t changed since the initial arrest, and they were released pending trial, the prosecutor's office confirmed.

Springfield Township police responded to the Hilltop Motel on the 100 block of Route 68 after the parents reported that their son had stopped breathing, police said.

After further investigation, police said they learned that the parents were frustrated because their son Hunter wouldn't fall asleep. He wouldn't stop crying, so they decided to put him in "time out," police said.

They put him on his stomach on the bed and pulled the comforter over his entire body, police said. They then left the room to smoke cigarettes and returned about 10 minutes later to find him not breathing and unresponsive, police said.

Hunter was taken to Virtua Hospital in Mount Holly. He was immediately transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he had minimal brain activity and was breathing with the assistance of a respirator. He died March 3 after life support was removed, police said.

An autopsy conducted by Philadelphia Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Albert Chu found the cause of death to be "complications of suffocation." The manner of death was deemed to be homicide.

See related: Parents Smothered 4-Month-Old Son At South Jersey Motel: Police

The attached images of William Herring and Brianna Brochhausen were provided by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office