12-21-07
A twelve person jury found a young woman, Molly Midyette, guilty of knowing and reckless child abuse resulting in the death of her 10-week-old son, though she isn’t accused of causing the injuries and claims she didn’t know about them. The woman cried as she was led out of court in handcuffs. She faces a mandatory 16 to 48 years in prison. Her husband, Alex, who is accused of inflicting the injuries, remains free on bond and still faces a trial at a later date. He shouted at the Boulder Deputy District Attorney  Collette Cribari, calling her a liar as the verdict for his wife was read.

Molly’s son, Jason, was born on December 17’th, 2005, and died 76 days later. In his short life he had suffered 27 fractures, and had sustained multiple brain injuries at the time of his death. Molly Midyette testified that she didn’t know about her sons injuries and never saw Jason very sick until he woke up from a nap on February 24, 2006. She closely watched the baby for several hours and then took him to the doctors when he didn’t get any better. He died at a hospital 7 days later.

The DA’s accuse Molly of knowing about the abuse and not
seeking help for her child until it was too late. Her lawyers
point out that she immediately sought medical attention just as soon as she noticed something wrong. The big controversy is that even doctors weren’t aware of the babies injuries initially. As Molly’s lawyer Craig Truman pointed out: If the doctors didn’t even know and couldn’t  tell  the  extent  of  the  babies  injuries  on  the surface, “How could Molly have known?” He also noted that Molly was extremely grief stricken by Jasons death, and loved the child.

Lawyers believe that the only reason Molly was convicted or even charged to begin with was because she has stood by her  husband.  “Molly says that she loves Alex and that she does not believe that Alex hurt the child,” Truman said. “Not all of us on the defense side believe that. I believe this child was abused. Alex will have his day in court.”

What exactly happened to Jason will probably remain a mystery, but one has to question the outcome of this case and the purpose it serves.  As emotionally moving and horrible as this baby’s short life and death were, we’ve now taken another persons life on the basis of little more than an assumptive accusation.