Mom Who Denied Son Meds Guilty In Son's Death
Salem Woman Withheld Lifesaving Drugs From Young Son.
POSTED: 10:28 am EDT April 12, 2011
UPDATED: 3:10 pm EDT April 12, 2011
BOSTON -- A Massachusetts mother who said she withheld lifesaving drugs from her cancer-stricken autistic son because they were making him sicker was found guilty of attempted murder in connection with her son's death.
Kristen LaBrie, 38, of Salem, was found guilty of attempted murder and child endangerment for failing to fill chemotherapy prescriptions for her son, Jeremy Fraser, who was diagnosed in 2006 with a treatable cancer. The boy died in March 2009 at age 9.
LaBrie initially denied withholding her son's medication, but later admitted to it, prosecutors said.
Defense attorney Kevin James asked for a continuance of the case, and Judge Richard Welch set sentencing for Friday.
"They'd have to be there to see what she was going through. We loved Jeremy more than any other boy in the whole world. I am going to miss him and their auntie. I have to go home and tell my son that their auntie moved away," LaBrie's sister, Elizabeth O'Keefe, said.
It's been a long struggle for everybody, including the defendant. It is never a good day to go through something like this," said Andrew Fraser, Jeremy's uncle.
On Monday, the jury deliberating the case returned with two questions for the judge: Are people legally required to administer prescribed medication and whether choosing not to provide medicine is an "overt action" that justifies conviction on an attempted murder charge.
"This was a difficult case. We have a lot of sympathy for the defendant. It was a difficult deliberation. I wish the best for all parties involved," juror Raymond Sims said after the verdict.
LaBrie sobbed as the prosecution made its final case to jurors, but the defense argued the evidence is not convincing.
"She made a cold and intentional decision, and she acted purposefully and carefully to make sure no one found out before it was too late," prosecutor Kate MacDougall said.
"The government has not proven an overt act. There is significant doubt. This attempted murder charge is bogus," James said.
During the trial, LaBrie said she mostly followed doctor's orders during the first four phases of treatment for her son, but stopped giving him the drugs because she "didn't want to make him any sicker."
"He was very, very sick and I was afraid, and I did not want to make him any sicker," LaBrie testified. "I was afraid that if he got any sicker than he was, then he would die."
Jeremy's oncologist testified that she told LaBrie that the cancer had a cure rate of 85 percent to 90 percent under a two-year treatment plan, and LaBrie was instructed to give him two to three cancer medications at home.
Jeremy's cancer went into remission, but in February 2008, doctors found that the cancer returned in the form of leukemia and that LaBrie had not filled five months' worth of prescriptions to treat Jeremy's cancer.
Prosecutors said a Department of Children and Families assessment worker confronted LaBrie with the allegations, and LaBrie insisted there was a billing error and or a misunderstanding.
Jeremy spent the last year of his life living with his father, Eric Fraser, who died in a motorcycle crash seven months after his son's death.
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