Reckless Manslaughter Charge dismissed for mom whose 1-year-old died when left in care of other chil
By Kent Faulk
Birmingham, AL
A judge this morning dismissed a reckless manslaughter charge against a Birmingham woman who had left her one-year-old daughter in the care of five other small children while she went out to a biker club. One of those children is now charged with intentionally killing the girl.
The Jefferson County District Attorney's Office, however, could still present the case to a grand jury for possible indictment against the mother of the girl.
Jefferson County District Court Judge Shelly Watkins refused to forward the reckless manslaughter charge against Katerra Lewis, 26, to a grand jury after hearing arguments from her attorney and testimony from a Birmingham homicide detective testified.
Birmingham Police homicide detective Rodney Rogers testified that he was called on Oct. 11 to investigate the death of 16-month-old Kelci Lewis at a home at 7109 2nd Avenue South.
Police: Death of Birmingham toddler probed as homicide
Kelci Devine Lewis, 1, was found unresponsive in his crib Sunday morning in eastern Birmingham.
Rogers testified there had been five other children in the house where Lewis and Kelci lived with two other women. One of the other children, age 6, witnessed one of the other children, an 8-year-old boy, hit and push Kelci's head into a dresser and bite the child, he said.
The 6-year-old had made the statements to workers at the Prescott House, Rogers said.
Rogers said that at first Lewis reported that the boy had told her the night of Oct. 10 that he had spanked Kelci. Lewis told police that she told the boy not to spank her again.
Katerra Lewis outside the Jefferson County Criminal Courts building after Jan. 14, 2016, hearing.Kent Faulk | kfaulk@al.com
Lewis also reported that she was home all night during an initial interview and not until about 10:55 a.m. the next morning did she find Kelci cold and not breathing, Rogers said.
But during a second interview Lewis admitted that she had left the house with one of the other women about 11 p.m. to go to the Steel City Motorcycle Club to be with her boyfriend, Rogers said. That left the kids alone because the other woman in the house also was gone and did not return until about 2 a.m., he said.
Lewis reported that she and the other woman she shared the house with returned between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., Rogers said. She reported it wasn't until about 10:55 a.m. that she found Kelci dead and asked one of the other women to call 911, the detective said.
Lewis' attorney, Emory Anthony, asked Rogers if anyone told police that Lewis had hit Kelci or abused her. Rogers said there were no such reports.
"Y'all take it to the grand jury," - Judge Shelly Watkins to prosecutor
Rogers confirmed the 8-year-old is charged with murder in the juvenile system.
Anthony asked Rogers if he knows of a law that Lewis had violated by leaving Kelci alone with the other children. Rogers said he didn't know of such a law.
Anthony also said that Lewis is not charged with aiding and abetting the 8-year-old boy, or conspiring with him, to kill Kelci. He told the judge he didn't know how prosecutors could charge her with anything.
Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Michael Streety argued that Lewis was reckless. She had left her child in the care of young children, including the 8-year-old who, according to one of the other two women in the house, had attention deficit disorder and played rough with the children.
Lewis disregarded "substantial risk" and left Kelci with a child "who had violent tendencies," Streety argued.
One of the women, who was the mother or guardian of the 8-year-old, declined to talk to police, Rogers said.
Watkins said it bothered him that the child was left along with the other children. He called it "stupid."
Anthony, however, said it wasn't against the law.
Watkins apparently agreed and said he didn't find probable cause for the charge and wasn't binding the case against Lewis for review by the grand jury.
But Watkins said the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office was free to take it on their own to the grand jury. "Y'all take it to the grand jury," he told Streety.
Streety declined comment after the hearing.
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