Crime
“The child should be celebrating his seventh birthday next month,” prosecutors said. “Instead, he died at just ten months old…”
An Adams couple was found guilty of manslaughter Monday after their 10-month-old foster child died while in their custody, prosecutors announced.
Matthew Tucker and Cassandra Barlow-Tucker were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and reckless child endangerment in Berkshire County Superior Court, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. They were charged in connection with the February 2020 death of their foster child.
Evidence presented during the six-day trial showed that the defendants ignored “clear and obvious signs” that the child needed medical treatment, resulting in his death, prosecutors said. A medical examiner determined that the child died from complications of a strep infection, bronchopneumonia, and empyema, which are “routinely treatable with timely medical care.”
Though the case was based in Berkshire County, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office oversaw it due to a “conflict of interest.” Assistant District Attorneys Andrew Covington and Stephanie Jimenez served as special prosecutors.
“The child should be celebrating his seventh birthday next month. Instead, he died at just ten months old because the defendants, his foster parents, failed to seek medical treatment despite clear and obvious signs that he needed care,” Covington said in the statement. “As special prosecutors assigned to this case, we felt a duty to see the matter through and ensure accountability.”
The couple is scheduled to be sentenced March 19, according to the DA’s office. They each face up to 20 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and up to two-and-a-half years in prison for the child endangerment charge.
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