WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A confounding and heartbreaking murder case alleging that a mother purposely poisoned her 5-year-old son with salt and documented his decline on social media began Monday in the New York suburbs.
Lacey Spears, 27, of Scottsville, Kentucky, who presented herself online as a supremely devoted mother, is charged with depraved murder and manslaughter in the death a year ago of Garnett-Paul Spears.
“This mother was intentionally feeding her child salt at toxic levels,” prosecutor Doreen Lloyd said at Spears’ arraignment.
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Spears’ lawyers asked the judge to prohibit any mention of Munchausen and prosecutors said they had no plans to bring it up.
The murder charge alleges Garnett was killed “under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life” rather than with intent. It carries the same maximum sentence as intentional murder, however – 25 years to life. The manslaughter count alleges Spears killed her son “while intending to cause serious physical injury.”
