ZOLOFT: 12 Year Old Boy Kills 5 Week Old Infant: Georgia

NOTE FROM Ann Blake-Tracy:

I could not even begin to count the number of times that a
child on Zoloft has told me of both thoughts and plans to kill that they
developed on Zoloft. Eric Harris, the lead shooter at Columbine, had those
thoughts within three weeks on Zoloft and found them to be so disturbing to him
that he reported it and they took him off Zoloft and put him on another
antidepressant. [What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and
expecting a different result – the other antidepressant, Luvox, ended up
producing thoughts of killing intense enough to result in the largest school
shooting the world had ever witnessed at that point.] I even had a case of a 5

year old boy in Southern Utah who had such intense feelings of homicide that he
told his family he was going to have the police come and kill them
all.

Check out our database of cases at www.ssristories.drugawareness.org to find more cases
like this of children killing while under the influence of
antidepressants.
Paragraph 29 reads:  “While the boy continued to refuse,
Curtis spoke to police when he was out of the room. She told them the boy was in
counseling, that he had been fighting at school, that he had been prescribed

Zoloft and a mood stabilizing medicine. Then, Curtis provided a tearful account
of what he said happened.”

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/infants-mother-testifies-as-tampa-boy-stands-trial-in-georgia-murder/1057496

Infant‘s mother testifies as Tampa boy stands trial in Georgia

death

By Alexandra
Zayas
, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday,
December 10, 2009

MARIETTA, Ga. ­ On the Fourth of July, Brittiany
Young returned to her car in a Target parking lot and put it in reverse. That’s
when she noticed the swollen mouth of her 5weekold daughter,
Millan.

Young put the car in park and turned to her cousin, a 12yearold

Tampa boy she had left alone with the baby.

“What did you do?” she asked.
“What did you do to her?”

The mother testified Wednesday morning in a
Cobb County, Ga., courtroom, where the Tampa boy faces charges of felony murder
and cruelty to children. He has pleaded not guilty. Juvenile Court Judge A.
Gregory Poole will decide the case without a jury.

The unidentified boy
­ a court order keeps his name secret ­ was visiting relatives July 4
outside Atlanta when his cousin stopped at the Target to pick up food for a
picnic. According to court testimony, the 22-yearold mother left the keys in
the ignition and the air conditioning on as she shopped at the store for 18
minutes. When Young returned, the boy was playing on his cell phone in the back
seat. The radio was turned louder. And the infant was not responsive.

The
baby girl was taken off life support the next day. A medical examiner found
multiple skull fractures and ruled the cause of death blunt force trauma to the
head.

The boy has remained in Georgia since July, first locked up in a
juvenile detention center, then transferred to a secure group
home.

Authorities said nothing specific about how they think the baby
died until Wednesday morning.

“Something so horrific happened that
pictures don’t do it justice,” prosecutor Eleanor Odom said in her opening
statement. “That child’s head was bashed in.”

The boy‘s attorney, Derek
Wright, had another word to describe the prosecution’s case:
“Impossible.”

He said prosecutors would not be able to provide a scenario
showing exactly what act of violence befell the baby ­ no weapon, no points
of impact in the car.

By Wednesday night, they still had not.

• •

In the courtroom, the sixth-grader wore a gold suit ­ like the one
he wore to his elementary school graduation.

When his mother, his father
and his great-aunt cried ­ when the baby’s mother cried ­ he remained
composed.

But emergency responders who first arrived at the scene
testified that they saw him pacing and sobbing. They noted a different, more
calm reaction from the mother. Paramedic Pierce Summers saw her later at the
hospital.

“For someone that had had a child in that circumstance, it was
surprising,” he said, “like she was kind of lost in a fog.”

Young
described what her baby looked like in the car: eyes swollen and hard to the
touch; blood on her mouth or nose; limp.

On July 5, the baby girl was
deemed brain dead and taken off life support. The prosecutor asked the mother,
“Were you there when Millan died?”

She paused to wipe tears. Then, she
said, “yes.”

After the judge ordered a break and the infant‘s mother left
the stand, the boy burst into tears. He stood up, turned around and looked at
his mother, who stood up from a bench and kissed his forehead.

• •

For much of the day and into the night, the prosecution focused on
three videotaped interviews the boy gave detectives.

The third was the
subject of an hourslong debate. The defense fought hard to have it suppressed,
saying the boy was forced to give incriminating statements.

During the
first, the boy told detectives what he told the baby’s mother: The baby began to
cry, so he tried to give her a pacifier. She spit it out, so he tried to give
her a bottle of water. She kept screaming, and was scratching her face. He
turned the radio loud, and it appeared she went to sleep.

The boy‘s story
didn’t stray far from his original account in his second interview, which he
gave the day after the baby was pronounced dead.

“If you accidentally
hurt Millan, would you tell us?” the detective asked.

“Yes,” the boy

said. “I didn’t accidentally hurt her. . . . I don’t want to hurt a
baby.”

But a couple of hours after he gave that interview ­ while
their entire family was gathered at the baby’s mother’s house ­ the boy‘s
mother, Camille Curtis, brought him back to speak with police. This time, she
was crying. She said he had told her something.

“It was just an
accident,” Curtis said. “He said he was scared. I asked him. He told me. He
thought I was going to be mad.”

Detectives asked the boy if he wanted to
talk. The boy shook his head.

While the boy continued to refuse, Curtis
spoke to police when he was out of the room. She told them the boy was in
counseling, that he had been fighting at school, that he had been prescribed

Zoloft and a mood stabilizing medicine. Then, Curtis provided a tearful account
of what he said happened.

She said he told her the baby started choking
when he tried to give her the bottle. He lifted her to his chest to burp her,
and she fell out of his hands.

The boy told the baby’s mother he was
sorry, Curtis said.

At that point in the videotape, the police told her
that this story didn’t match the injuries. The video shows her pleading with her
son to tell the police the truth, that he wouldn’t be allowed to go home until
he did.

He tells her he wiped the baby’s blood with a blanket, and that
he accidentally hit her with his elbow while trying to pick her up off the
floor.

Just before midnight on the videotape, when it appeared the boy
was about to talk, the judge stopped the tape.

“I find this to be
inherently unfair,” the judge said. “This child is so scared . . . literally in
a corner. His mother is pressuring him. How many times does the kid say he
doesn’t want to talk?”

With that, the judge struck the entire third
interview from the record. None of it will factor into the decision he will make
this week.

The trial continues today.

Alexandra Zayas can be
reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 310-2081.

[Last modified: Dec
09, 2009 11:29 PM]

________________________________________

Judge’s
Verdict: Guilty, but not of murder

Dressed in a shirt and tie, the skinny, dimpled boy stayed calm as the
judge delivered his verdict: “I find beyond a reasonable doubt that Millan
suffered major trauma during the 18 minutes the juvenile was alone with the
baby. … I find that the juvenile caused the injuries and that the baby later
died as a result of the trauma.

“Now, what do I think happened? This child was left alone with the baby.
I don’t know that should have happened, but it did …

“Millan, a child he really didn’t know, started crying, and it got louder

“He didn’t know what to do. I think he was scared. He tried using the
pacifier to make this baby stop crying. It didn’t work. What did he do
next?

“He got out the bottle of water … He gives it to the baby. The baby won’t
be quiet. Turns up the radio so he won’t have to hear this baby crying. That
didn’t work. He might have even turned it up again. Well, the pink pacifier
didn’t work. Let’s use the purple pacifier …

“This juvenile was trying to get the baby to quit crying. … He was
scared, and he didn’t know what to do. … I wouldn’t expect him to know what to
do.

“I find that in order to get the baby to be quiet, using his own means as
a 12yearold, that he committed batteries, plural, against this baby

“Did this child mean that his actions would kill Millan? No …

“Technically, I think I can find possibly if I wanted to go further, some
type of an involuntary manslaughter. In my mind, I’ve still got to place this
child with some expectation, some appreciation for the horrific damage that it
has done, and I find nothing along those lines.

“Did he do wrong? Oh yeah, he did. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it
did.”

Tampa
boy, 12, found not guilty of murder in infant‘s death

By Alexandra Zayas,
Times Staff Writer
In Print:
Saturday, December 12, 2009

MARIETTA,
Ga. — The 12yearold Tampa boy sat in the Cobb County Juvenile Courthouse
Friday morning, still an accused baby murderer. A few hours later, he chomped on
potato chips and Skittles and asked to go to the all-you-can-eat buffet at
Golden Corral. He told his family he had plans for his future.

“I want to
be a judge,” he said. “I want to go to Harvard.”

This
announcement came after one made by Judge A. Gregory Poole: The boy was not
guilty of murder and child cruelty in the July death of his 5weekold cousin,
Millan
Young. He was guilty of a lesser offense, two counts of battery, which could
carry a two-year sentence, served either in a detention center, a group home, or
as probation while living with family. The sentence will come with
counseling.

The judge
will decide it on Jan. 6.

Had the boy
been convicted of murder, he would have faced nine years in detention.

As they
prepared to leave the courthouse, the boy‘s grandmother wrapped him in a tight
hug and told him, “See how God delivered you?”

He
responded, “Yes, ma’am.”

• • •

For three
days, lawyers tried to convince a judge of what they thought happened inside a
parked car on July 4.

The boy, his
name kept secret by court order, was visiting relatives near Atlanta when he got
into a car with his mother’s 22-yearold first cousin Brittiany Young and her
infant daughter. Young stopped at Target to get food and left the car
running.

When she
returned, she testified, the boy was playing on his cell phone. The radio was
turned up. And the baby’s mouth was swollen. Her lips were blue. Her eyes were
hard to the touch. She was limp and not breathing. The baby died the following
day.

Three
doctors testified about the child’s injuries: two types of brain hemorrhages,
retinal hemorrhages, unrelated fractures on opposite sides of her head, and
bruising of the mouth and other parts of her body. Tissue on her upper lip was
bruised, something that happens when babies are force-fed.

They said
the injuries weren’t accidental but couldn’t determine who caused them. The
medical examiner called it a homicide, finding that the child must have been
held firmly, shaken and slammed at least twice against a hard, flat surface.

Crime lab
tests found no physical evidence in the car. Prosecutors had testimony that the
baby was acting normally before the mother left the car and was unresponsive
when she returned.

In closing
statements Friday, defense attorney Derek Wright tried to convince the judge
that prosecutors didn’t prove the boy was the murderer. He said he could make a
case against the baby’s mother, noting that several emergency responders said
Young was acting unusually calm when they arrived, but that the boy was sobbing
and pacing. He suggested the possibility that the baby was injured at the
mother’s home minutes away but didn’t show signs of trauma until the parking
lot.

The baby’s
mother sat in the courtroom on a bench closest to the door. She stared ahead
with tears in her eyes as Wright said she could have let her cousin take the
blame.

Prosecutor
Eleanor Odom argued that the baby’s mother didn’t appear distraught because she
didn’t yet know the extent of the baby’s injuries, but that the boy already
did.

Odom took a
blood-stained, pink onesie out of an evidence bag and showed it to the
judge.

“You can see
the size, how big Millan really was,” Odom said. “I think this speaks more words
than those pictures ever could.”

Dressed in a
shirt and tie, the skinny, dimpled boy stayed calm as the judge delivered his
verdict: “I find beyond a reasonable doubt that Millan suffered major trauma
during the 18 minutes the juvenile was alone with the baby. … I find that the
juvenile caused the injuries and that the baby later died as a result of the
trauma.

“Now, what
do I think happened? This child was left alone with the baby. I don’t know that
should have happened, but it did …

“Millan, a
child he really didn’t know, started crying, and it got louder …

“He didn’t
know what to do. I think he was scared. He tried using the pacifier to make this
baby stop crying. It didn’t work. What did he do next?

“He got out
the bottle of water … He gives it to the baby. The baby won’t be quiet. Turns up
the radio so he won’t have to hear this baby crying. That didn’t work. He might
have even turned it up again. Well, the pink pacifier didn’t work. Let’s use the
purple pacifier …

“This
juvenile was trying to get the baby to quit crying. … He was scared, and he
didn’t know what to do. … I wouldn’t expect him to know what to do.

“I find that
in order to get the baby to be quiet, using his own means as a 12yearold, that
he committed batteries, plural, against this baby …

“Did this
child mean that his actions would kill Millan? No …

“Technically, I
think I can find possibly if I wanted to go further, some type of an involuntary
manslaughter. In my mind, I’ve still got to place this child with some
expectation, some appreciation for the horrific damage that it has done, and I
find nothing along those lines.

“Did he do
wrong? Oh yeah, he did. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it did.”

Once the
judge stopped talking, the boy started to cry. His parents embraced him, also in
tears. His mother smiled.

The baby’s
mother left the courtroom after the verdict and declined to comment. The boy‘s
grandmother said the family planned to gather at Brittiany Young’s home later
that day.

The judge
needed to decide where the boy would stay until the sentencing. He was
originally locked up in a juvenile detention center, but later transferred to a
secured group home.

A
representative from the group home told the judge the boy had a tough transition
into his school and, due to the stresses of his case, sometimes shut down
emotionally. But he said the boy was a role model and standout student.

The judge
allowed him to return to the group home and said he was welcome to visit with
family. He told the boy his behavior in the next month will be important in
deciding a sentence. The boy promised to be good.

Then, the
boy‘s attorney told the family, “Y’all go breathe.”

• • •

The boy‘s
grandmother, Joyce Hightower, couldn’t sleep Thursday night. She’d driven from
Tampa earlier that day and spent the night reading news about the case and
praying.

Now, holding
her grandson’s hand, she asked him how he felt.

“Good,” he
told her. “Anxious.”

“Anxious for
what?” she asked.

He said, “To
go home.”

Alexandra
Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813)
310-2081.