A New York mother accused of poisoning her son with salt to gain social media attention after posting about his mysterious illness online was convicted of murder on Monday, prosecutors said.
A jury in state court in White Plains, New York, found Lacey Spears, 27, guilty of murder in the 2014 killing of 5-year-old Garnet Paul Spears, District Attorney Janet DiFiore said in a statement.
The verdict came on the third day of deliberations.
“For five years, Garnet Spears suffered multiple hospitalizations, unnecessary surgeries and ultimately salt poisoning — all at the hands of his mother, who was supposed to be his greatest protector,” DiFiore said.
“Her actions, using her child’s ‘illness’ to aggrandize herself, directly led to the torture and death of her son,” DiFiore said in a statement.
Lacey Spears with her son Garnet. Source: Provided
Lacey Spears with her son Garnett, whom she allegedly murdered. Credit: Supplied/YahooUS
The suburban New York mother faces up to 25 years to life in prison when she is sentenced on April 8.
According to prosecutors, the sick boy was rushed to Nyack Hospital on Jan. 19, 2014, where he was found to have dangerously high levels of hypernatremia with no medical explanation. He was then flown by helicopter to Westchester Medical Center, where he died on Jan. 23, 2014.
Garnet in a photo from her mother’s blog. Credit: Provided.
Evidence seized from the home included “feed bags containing large amounts of sodium,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Pediatricians at the hospital grew suspicious of the mother’s recollections of her son’s numerous visits, hospitalizations and invasive surgeries — suspicions fuelled by her documenting her son’s final days on Facebook and appearing to revel in the outpouring of sympathy she received in those posts, prosecutors said.
Garnett’s mother faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.
Spears’ lawyer, Steven Liebling, who lives in Chestnut Ridge, about 32 miles north of New York City, argued that she is innocent and that the hospital should be blamed for negligence.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg and Eric Walsh Editing)
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