A Baltimore woman whose 2-year-old daughter died of a methadone overdose pleaded guilty yesterday to voluntary manslaughter and will be sentenced to a suspended 10-year prison term - and probation that includes mental health treatment.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory accepted the deal with prosecutors that will spare Vernice Harris, 31, a prison term, instead deciding that the troubled mother needs help and five years of probation. Doory said he would sentence Harris when a space in a mental health treatment facility was found.
The case raised concerns about the way the state's child welfare agency and city Health Department handled Harris, who has a history of abuse and neglect, before her daughter's death last year.
Harris had been charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in the death of Bryanna Ashley Harris, the youngest of three children. Prosecutors said they negotiated a deal because they could not prove that Harris fed the baby methadone. Assistant State's Attorney Ernest Reitz also said that a blow to Bryanna's stomach that was documented by a state medical examiner did not cause her death.
"She's innocent of the charges," defense attorney Maureen Rowland said of Harris. "I'm convinced that one of the other men in the house gave that baby methadone. It's sad someone has to plead guilty to a crime to get mental health treatment."
None of Harris' relatives came to the sentencing. Only a friend cradling an infant, who Rowland said did not want to speak publicly, attended. And when Reitz turned to the audience - crowded with reporters and people there for other cases - and asked if anyone had come to speak on Bryanna's behalf, no one responded.
During the short hearing, Rowland spoke for Harris and denied that her client fed the child methadone. Harris, wearing a pink T-shirt and jeans, stood beside her attorney with her arms crossed over her chest and cried as the prosecutor read the facts of the case into the record.
Harris spoke briefly, saying she had been told that she would receive three years of probation instead of five, and that she would be released immediately to a treatment facility.
"I thought I was leaving jail today," she said.
Doory told her to "just cooperate with anyone trying to get you in a proper facility."
Harris has told police that she has a history of bipolar disorder and addictions to crack cocaine and heroin. She lived off Social Security's disability payments.
