Milwaukee couple pleads guilty in 1-year-old's death after Fireball whiskey allegation
A Wisconsin couple admitted guilt after their infant was found unresponsive and later died. A 6-year-old sibling told police the baby was given whiskey the day before.
Milwaukee parents admit neglect after baby found dead in apartment
A Milwaukee couple has each pleaded guilty to child neglect charges following the death of their 1-year-old, Law & Crime reports, after criminal complaints revealed the infant had been left unmonitored for hours — and that a 6-year-old sibling told police the baby had been given Fireball whiskey the day before dying.
Kevin McCall, 30, and Christina Davis, 23, were charged in connection with the death of their infant, who was found unresponsive at their Milwaukee, Wisconsin, apartment on Feb. 22. When emergency services arrived, the baby was on the front porch with the couple and was rushed to a hospital. Medical staff found rigor mortis already setting in; the baby was pronounced dead.
Davis pleaded guilty on Oct. 15 to two misdemeanor counts of child neglect and was sentenced to 18 months' probation. McCall pleaded guilty on Monday to one felony count of child neglect; a second count was dismissed but read into the record. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 18.
Police had responded that afternoon to a call about a "pulseless nonbreathing child" at the apartment complex. According to criminal complaints reviewed by Law & Crime, Davis returned home from work around 2 p.m. to find her 6-year-old daughter standing in the corner as punishment for allegedly stealing a TV remote. McCall told police he had also "whooped" the girl. While McCall was repairing a video game controller, he asked Davis to check on the baby. She found the infant "stiff" with its eyes rolling back into its head, according to police documents, and instructed McCall to call 911.
Both parents admitted to investigators that they had not fed, checked on, or changed the baby's diaper at any point that day.
A detective interviewed the 6-year-old at the family's apartment. The girl said McCall and Davis regularly left her alone with the infant — sometimes for around an hour and a half at a time, at least once or twice a week. She also told the detective that the day before the baby's death, she watched her mother prepare a bottle for the infant containing a "medicine" that would make the baby "pass out." She then produced the substance for the detective: a 50 mL bottle of Fireball cinnamon whiskey.
Davis denied giving the baby alcohol. She did acknowledge, however, that the couple left their two children unsupervised in the apartment on a regular basis. Davis also told police that she relied heavily on her 6-year-old for help around the home because McCall "does not provide any assistance."
McCall's sentencing is set for Dec. 18.
Source: Law & Crime