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Summary: David Sachs, the lawyer for Lacey Spears, who is accused of poisoning her 5-year-old son with salt, has made several motions to suppress key evidence against his client.
Lacey Spears is accused of fatally poisoning her 5-year-old son with salt, an event that took four days, and relates to his lifelong dependence on a feeding bag and his mother’s care. In response to the first-degree manslaughter and second degree murder charges Spears faces, her lawyer, David Sachs, has revealed his first gambit in her defense: dismiss all the evidence he can.
Thus he has filed a series of motions that will dismiss the over 43,000 pages of Facebook pictures and updates that refer to her son’s illness – all except those posted during the 4-days when the boy was poisoned. Sachs also wishes dismissed as evidence the feeding bags police seized with a second warrant, which tested positive for high levels of sodium chloride, the substance that ultimately killed Garnett Paul Thompson Spears, who died Jan. 23. He argues that the warrants were issued without probable cause, and did not describe “with sufficient particularity” what they were looking for.
Sachs wishes further to dismiss medical records from 43 hospitals, pharmacies, doctors offices, and so forth, the boy saw in New York, Alabama, and Florida. Finally, he wishes to bar the mention of “Munchausen by proxy,” a mental disorder by which a parent seeks attention from others by poisoning her child.
In other words, all the key evidence prosecutors would address to describe the situation and explain the events that led to Garnett’s death would not so much be given an alternate explanation by Sachs, but entirely dodged.
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Nevertheless, investigators claim that the high amount of Facebook postings Spears posted are relevant. As lohud.com reported, Westchester County police Detective Daniel Carfi found the Facebook pages relevant, saying, “For example, she stated to me that Garnett was primarily able to eat via a feeding tube; however, the Facebook compliance I received show numerous photographs and contain a number of references regarding the ability and frequency of Garnet to eat orally.”
Garnett died from lack of oxygen and dehydration, which physicians on the case believe resulted from Spears giving her son a substance that raised his sodium levels. The first search of her house brought out two containers of salt, almost 200 homeopathic remedies, and various medications.
Prosecutors will have until Sept. 22 to respond to Sachs’ motions against these key points of evidence, and Judge Robert Neary will rule Oct. 15 as to when Spears will appear before Westchester County Court.
