Lacey Spears Murder Trial in Hands of Jury

Lacey Spears’ trial for the murder of her 5-year-old son Garnett-Paul went to the jurors yesterday, after attorneys for both sides presented closing arguments.

Defense attorney Stephen Riebling said Nyack Hospital had been negligent, according to news reports.

“They allowed Garnett Spears to become dehydrated,” he said. “They didn’t give him the proper fluids.”

Assistant District Attorney Patricia Murphy said there was no other reason for the boy’s death.

“There is no innocent explanation for hooking a 5-year-old up to a bag containing 13,000 milligrams of sodiumm” she said. Every doctor who testified agreed that the spike in salt levels could not happen naturally.

She dismissed all the illnesses Spears had described in her son, including food allergies and celiac disease.

“There’s only salt poisoning,” she said.

Spears, who had chronicled her son’s illnesses for years on Twitter, had taken her son to Nyack Hospital with a report of seizures on Jan. 17. On Jan. 19 his sodium levels spiked dangerously and he was transferred to Westchester Medical Center.

Doctors there learned of his history of extensive hospitalizations, invasive surgeries and constant medical visits. On Jan. 21 his monitors went off and hospital staff rushed in to find him gray and unresponsive. The head of the pediatric intensive care unit called the state Office of Children and Family Services a couple of hours later, according to Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore. Garnett was pronounced dead Jan. 23.

Six months later, Spears was charged with murder.

PHOTO: Fios1

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