He once called 88 times in a two-hour period. He repeatedly drove past her house in his black BMW. He sent rambling emails and countless text messages.Thirteen-month-old Regjanae Williams died in June 2008 from an overdose of morphine so large it could have killed an adult.
On Tuesday her mother, Julianna K. Williams, 29, stood trial on a single charge of neglect of a dependent causing death.
Williams is accused of leaving her youngest in the care of her mother, who prosecutors argue was a known drug addict who occasionally left her pills where the children could get at them.
The bench trial before Allen Superior Court Judge John Surbeck is expected to last until Thursday.
The girl’s grandmother, Williams’ 54-year-old mother, Rosalie Ford, is also accused of neglect and is set to stand trial within the next few weeks. Subpoenaed to testify in her daughter’s case, Ford declined, invoking her constitutional right not to incriminate herself.
Testimony on Tuesday focused on the drugs that caused the toddler’s death and on whether Williams knew of Ford’s drug problem.
On June 20, 2008, paramedics were called to the 1300 block of Fayette Drive on a report of an infant in cardiac arrest. When they arrived, they found Regjanae on the living room floor, not breathing. She was pronounced dead later at Parkview Hospital.
Williams told police she had taken a nap with the baby, putting her on top of a comforter on top of her. When she awoke, she found the baby was limp with blue lips.
An autopsy revealed no external injuries, and a preliminary cause of death was attributed to accidental asphyxia, but when the results of a toxicology screen came back, the child’s death was ruled a homicide.
The toxicology screen revealed the baby’s blood and urine contained fatal levels of morphine – amounts that could kill an adult, according to testimony.
The amount of the drug ingested would have put the baby in an obviously sleepy or comatose state, according to testimony.
Because the drug suppresses the central nervous system, too much of it would cause the brain to shut down the parts that direct breathing, said Joseph Gunn, a toxicologist from Indianapolis-based AIT Laboratories.
Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards handled the case, bringing forward neighbors, family friends and others to testify that Ford had long taken prescription painkillers – and that when she did, she often became intoxicated.
One of Williams’ other children testified that Regjanae liked to get bottles of pills out of Ford’s purse or off the nightstand and shake the bottle like a baby rattle.
Each woman has also been charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent stemming from two other cases that involve the children and Ford’s drugs.
A worker with the Allen County Department of Children’s Services testified that marijuana and paraphernalia were found in the home behind a couch.
