RACHEL WEST -11weeks- (2008) Cincinnati OH

by mermaid55 on Sun May 15, 2011 8:21 am

Couple Convicted In Baby's Starvation Death

Coroner: Infant Had No Food In Digestive Tract When She Died

POSTED: 12:55 pm EDT April 29, 2011

CINCINNATI -- A judge found a couple guilty of murder Friday in the starvation death of their infant daughter.

Judge Nadine Allen convicted Jill Hull and Gary West on two counts of murder – one for knowingly inflicting starvation and dehydration and the other for recklessly refusing to provide medical treatment that would have saved their child's life.

Rachel West was only 11 weeks old when she was discovered unconscious and suffering from a respiratory condition Nov. 28, 2008, at her family's Sayler Park home.

An autopsy showed the child had no food at all inside her digestive tract when she died, but investigators found baby formula inside the house.

The baby's aunt said she had fed the girl on occasion.

When emergency crews responded to the girl's medical emergency, police arrested the child's grandparents, David and Joyce Hull, on charges related to a pair of bank robberies.

West and Hull will be sentenced June 1. Theirs is the first known case in Hamilton County resulting in a murder conviction in a starvation death.

Read more: http://www.wlwt.com/news/27720387/detail.html#ixzz1MRzHJZno