A Gary woman is facing possible prison after she drunkenly fell asleep on her infant son, accidentally suffocating him, according to court records.
Kewanda Slaughter, 31, is charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death or catastrophic injury, a Level 1 felony; neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 3 felony; neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, a Level 5 felony; and neglect of a dependent, a Level 6 felony.
She is in custody, held without bond.
“I told (her) a hundred times, stop…getting drunk and going to sleep next to my son,” the father told police. “This is what she do.”
Public court filings do not show charges against him.
Gary Police responded at 9 a.m.on May 16 to the 1400 block of E. 50th Place. The baby was identified as 4-month-old Lurant Finley.
He died from accidental asphyxiation, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office.
When officers arrived, the baby was lying on the bedroom floor after paramedics could not revive him.
The father told police he pulled the child from under Slaughter before he went to work the night before. By the morning, she called him, saying the boy was “unresponsive” with “blue lips,” according to the affidavit. He fought with her about drinking, then co-sleeping with the infant.
Later, he told officers they didn’t have a crib for the boy, since they didn’t want him to be “enslaved,” records show.
Slaughter told detectives she was “working on homework” when she “passed out.” After she woke up in the morning at 8 a.m., she called 911.
Police noted the baby had no other place to sleep.
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A breathalyzer indicated she had a .103 blood alcohol content. Police found a couple of alcohol containers in the house.
“You killed my baby,” the infant’s father said as she was being arrested.
“I drink, because you’re broke,” Slaughter replied.
“I was wrong. I (messed) up,” she, distraught, later told police, before admitting she got drunk and fell asleep with the child.
“ I’m going to (mess) you up,” the child’s father later told her, as recorded on a police bodycam.
Later, Slaughter requested a lawyer in a formal police interview.
When police later called the father again, his answers were “more vague,” insisting it was an accident.