Lacey Spears a 'calculating child killer' – prosecutor says

Minutes before the jury filed into court for opening statements in her much-anticipated trial on charges she poisoned her 5-year-old son to death with salt, Lacey Spears broke down.

Tears streamed down so fast from the 27-year-old Chestnut Ridge woman's face that she had to remove her glasses to wipe them. Her quiet sobs filled the courtroom, as a defense lawyer fetched her tissues.

Video:

Spears defense attorney, part 2

But prosecutors argued that Lacey Spears was not an innocent mother grieving the death of her son, Garnett.

"Lacey Spears is a calculating child killer who researched, planned and executed the intentional poisoning of her son, Garnett Spears, with salt," Westchester County Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd said. "She is no longer the mother of Garnett Spears because she murdered him."

Defense lawyer Stephen Riebling also injected theatrics into opening statements, directing jurors' attention to the empty witness chair and standing for several seconds without saying a word.

"Members of the jury, what you just heard — that deafening silence — represents the sum total of the direct evidence against Lacey Spears," he said. "Their case, their accusations are riddled with reasonable doubt."

No one saw Spears pour salt into Garnett's stomach tube, Riebling said. He also said Garnett's sodium levels surged while the boy was at Nyack Hospital. "He had no issues with sodium while Garnett was under the care of his mother," Riebling said.

Riebling characterized Spears as a caring mother, always there for her son.

"Through her actions, you will see Lacey shows us how much she loved Garnett, how much she cared for him and, most importantly, the deep regard she had for the value of his life,' he said.

More than 35 people were in the courtroom for opening statements, including Spears' father and sister.

Garnett was a beautiful, blond-haired, blue-eyed, intelligent and curious boy who had a knack for remembering names, Lloyd said. He and his mother lived at the Fellowship Community where prosecutors said he "basically became the little mayor."

Central to the prosecution's case will be video footage from Garnett's room Jan. 19, 2014, at Nyack Hospital after his mother learns he is to be released because he's not having seizures. Spears, prosecutors say, repeatedly took Garnett into the bathroom, holding a connector to his stomach tube, which she used to poison him with salt.

"You can see how well he is before he goes in and how sick he is minutes after he comes out," Lloyd said. On one occasion, Garnett keeled over, retched in pain and screamed, as his mother watched, Lloyd said.

"She observes him like a scientific experiment," Lloyd said, adding that Spears awaits a "result she knows is going to come."

"Within a minute, his smile goes to a frown," she said.

Lloyd accused Spears of being obsessed with Garnett's sodium levels, researching ways to sicken him with salt through a feeding tube prosecutors allege he didn't even need.

"She seemed to relish in the attention and sympathy she got from having a sick little boy," Lloyd said.

She painted a portrait of Spears being "cool as a cucumber" prior to heading to Nyack Hospital after Spears had hooked her son up to a feeding bag that prosecutors said later tested positive for high sodium. Later, as Spears was told police would open an investigation into her son's death, she calls a friend and asks her to go to her apartment, find the used feeding bag and discard it.

"That bag is proof positive that the defendant was feeding her son salt," Lloyd said.

Prosecutors called several witnesses Tuesday including a former friend of Spears, an emergency room nurse and doctor, both of whom saw Garnett when he was admitted to Nyack Hospital.

Oona Younger, who met Spears at the Fellowship, testified that she saw Garnett regularly eating by mouth when the two would go to Friendly's, Starbucks and other eateries.

"He used to eat a lot of chicken, sometimes hamburgers," Younger said. "There wasn't anything he would refuse to eat."

Janelle Kimler, the registered nurse, testified Garnett walked into the ER on his own. Lacey Spears told her Garnett was having episodes of seizures, with his "eyes rolling in the back of his head," and convulsions but Kimler, who spent roughly 10 minutes with him, said he was "well-appearing." Garnett, she recalls, smiled as he sat quietly on a stretcher and had rosy cheeks, showing "no signs of distress."

Lacey Spears was "very knowledgeable of medical terminology," Kimler recalled, noting that Spears told her Garnett suffered from Celiac disease, Crohn's disease and was using a G-tube as a way to get supplemental nutrition. Spears also told Kimler she didn't vaccinate because she's a Mormon, Kimler said.

Kevin McSherry, the doctor, said Spears told him that Garnett was hospitalized at 10 weeks of age with a sodium level of 200. McSherry testified, "I did not believe that," noting that such a high level is incompatible with life. Garnett, he recalls, was quiet, alert and awake. McSherry will continue testifying when the trial resumes at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Twitter: @LeeHiggins

Key points from the prosecutor:

Only explanation for Garnett Spears' death is deliberate salt poisoning by his mother

Lacey Spears researched dangers of high sodium and tried covering her tracks by asking a friend to discard feeding bag that tested positive for elevated levels of salt.

Key points from the defense: