U.S. ‘Blogger Mom’ convicted of killing son, 5, by poisoning him with salt

A woman who blogged for years about her son’s constant health woes was convicted Monday of poisoning him to death by force-feeding heavy concentrations of sodium through his stomach tube. A jury in the New York suburbs found Lacey Spears, of Scottsville, Kentucky, guilty of second-degree murder in the death last year of 5-year-old Garnett-Paul Spears. The defense portrayed Spears as a caring mother and her son as sickly, but the prosecution argued that Spears reveled in the attention Garnett’s illness brought her.

The motive is bizarre, the motive is scary, but it exists. She apparently craved the attention of her family, her friends, her co-workers and most particularly the medical profession.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia Murphy

Several doctors testified that there was no medical explanation for the spike in Garnett’s sodium levels that led to his death. But defense lawyer Stephen Riebling said there was no “direct evidence” of a crime and drew out from witnesses that Spears seemed devastated by her son’s death. The evidence included two feeding bags found in Spears’ apartment that were heavily tainted with salt, including one that Spears asked a friend to hide. One bag had the equivalent of 69 McDonald’s salt packets in it, a forensic toxicologist testified. Also in evidence were many of Spears’ postings on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and a blog and her online research into the dangers of sodium in children.

If she’s planning on killing him, why does she care whether his feet are cold?

Defence lawyer Stephen Riebling

World