Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals has determined that a couple that has twice seen their infant children suffocate to death while sharing a bed with the babies can be bound over for trial on charges of child abuse homicide.
The court decided, in two separate rulings, that Echo Nielsen and Trevor Merrill could both be bound over for trial on charges of child abuse homicide, a third-degree felony, and reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor. The couple was charged following the August 2006 death of their 31/2-month-old son.
According to the rulings written by Utah Court of Appeals Judge William Thorne, the couple went to sleep in the same bed with the baby and awoke "sometime later" to find that the infant wasn't breathing. Merrill attempted CPR and called 911, but the child died soon after.
Charges were filed against the couple in 2007 and they were bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing before 3rd District Judge Robert Adkins, court records state. They filed a motion to quash the bind over, which was denied by 3rd District Judge Mark Kouris.
They then appealed both to the Utah Court of Appeals on a claim of insufficient evidence.
It was Nielsen and Merrill's contention that Utah's deputy chief medical examiner, Dr. Edward Leis, should not have been allowed to testify because Leis had deemed the infant's cause and manner of death as "undetermined," the rulings state. Nielsen also took issue with the inclusion of information about the couple's infant daughter who died as a result of asphyxiation after "co-sleeping" with Merrill and Nielsen three years earlier.
State prosecutors argued that the information about the prior death should be allowed in the hearing because it should have given Merrill and Nielsen knowledge as to the dangers of co-sleeping, according to the rulings. They also argued that Leis' opinion about possible asphyxiation was admissible as a theory.
Adkins ruled that all of that evidence was admissible after deciding that "because there is no jury at the preliminary hearing stage the probative value of the evidence outweighed the danger of unfair prejudice," the Nielsen-related ruling states.
The Utah Court of Appeals, in Thorne's ruling, sided with Adkins in admitting the evidence and with Kouris in refusing to quash the bindover.
"Evidence related to the previous infant’s co‐sleeping death is relevant because such evidence makes it more probable that Nielsen acted with the knowledge that co‐sleeping with her infant son, and allowing Merrill to do so, put this infant at risk," the Nielsen-related ruling states. "As a result, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to quash the bindover."
The court stated in Merrill's case that the Utah Supreme Court has previously allowed evidence similar to that offered by Leis and that prosecutors provided enough evidence to support a "reasonable inference" that Merrill caused the baby's death.
"We affirm the district court’s decision to deny Merrill’s motion to quash the bindover on the child abuse homicide and reckless endangerment charges," the Merrill-related ruling states.
A status conference has been set in Nielsen's case for Jan. 31.
Email:emorgan@ksl.com
