Parents Left Baby Alone in Car Seat for 8 Days

[Rhino]

Parents of Baby Left Alone in Car Seat for 8 Days Face Murder Charges
Thursday, February 21, 2008

PEORIA, Ill. — A central Illinois couple faces first-degree murder charges in the death of their 5-month-old baby, who was found unresponsive in a car seat that had been placed in a crib.

Both Tracey Hermann, 21, and James Sargent, 23, appeared Wednesday in Peoria County Circuit Court in the death of Benjamin Sargent.

The charges state the parents' actions or lack thereof, were "brutal and heinous . . . indicative of wanton cruelty," factors that could mean they face up to 100 years in prison if convicted.

The 5-month-old was dropped off at his parents' house on Feb. 4, strapped into his car seat. Eight days later, he was found in the same position...http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331732,00.html

[Wolfcounsel]

More mad dogs to be put down. What is this crap about getting 100 years in jail, if they are not 100 full years, without early out and parole? One bullet each through their anuses, powerful enough to reach the brain stem, and allow these miserable air-sucking parasites to expire.

[jayson]

How do you not think anything about your kid for 8 days? That would lead me to think they did it on purpose, no?

[DoctorDoom]

How did the kid survive for 8 days without water?He didn't, ergo the first-degree murder charges.

Refers to since-edited post

[Wolfcounsel]

"How did the kid survive for 8 days without water?" --jayson

Did I miss something? The child would have died within 12 hours minimum.
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[DoctorDoom]

How do you not think anything about your kid for 8 days? That would lead me to think they did it on purpose, no?It stinks of premeditation, which is required for a murder-one charge.

[PrezLeefun]

That is just evil. I dont care if they planned or not. They had to know their child was missing. Forgetting for an hour two is plausible and irresponsible but to go on for days, over a week, without your child.... THEY KNEW WHAT HAD HAPPENED.

DISGUSTING. I dont even want kids and I know I'd be a better parent than that.

[Rhino]

During the eight days the baby was strapped in the seat, both Hermann and Sargent were home, "playing video games, watching TV, feeding and caring for themselves," Lyons said.Ban video games.

[jayson]

Refers to since-edited post

Yeah, I read the rest of the article after commenting... my bad.

[Rhino]

...Benjamin was wearing a blue snow suit. It was zipped up.
The temperature in the room was near 80 degrees. Benjamin’s
eyes were open, his hands were clenched in a fistlike position
and, although dead, his eyes were staring straight ahead.

Police investigation and medical and pathological
examination would reveal that Benjamin had been strapped into
this car seat and had not left it in eight days. All waste and urine
had collected beneath him and his buttocks, legs and back were
eaten into by the resulting poison. Some waste left in Benjamin’s
colon revealed resulted in constipation because it could not be
pushed out of his body due to starvation.

...The 'mother' was in Iowa, where she had gone to see-a
male boyfriend she found over the internet. She told police that
caring for her baby Benjamin was not her duty and that it was
James' responsibility. Before heading to Iowa on the day before
Benjamin was found dead, Tracy Hermann said she looked at
the baby in the crib and presumed he was sleeping so she said
she stuck a bottle between the baby and the side of the carseat
so that when he woke up he could grab it and feed himself if he
was hungry. In case the court missed it earlier, Benjamin
Sargent was five months old.http://www.pjstar.com/images/stories/Peoria_County_Case_08_CF_200.pdf

[ColonialMarine0431]

Revoke their membership in the Human Race.

[PrezLeefun]

http://www.pjstar.com/images/stories/Peoria_County_Case_08_CF_200.pdf

Selfish evil whore.

[ColonialMarine0431]

I hope they both get torn limb from limb in jail.

[DeclinetoState]

Were drugs involved?

[Rhino]

Not from any of the reports, but it wouldn't surprise me much.

[PrezLeefun]

It doesnt matter much to me. Drugs or no drugs both parents are still pigs who deserve death.

[Air Force Guy]

I wish I had not read this article. I am overwhelmed with grief for the child. There is a massive amount of disbelief, cognitive dissonance if you will, pounding in my brain. I cannot be convinced that such intentional evil exists. I must believe that the "parents" are total airheads or I will go completely nuts. That child is in heaven right now, waiting for his mom and dad to face Judgment Day. I cannot imagine the wrath that awaits them.

I have heard people rail against the government for the airbag/carseat issue. IOW, if the government didn't force us to have airbags in our cars, baby car seats might still be allowed in the front seat and parents would be less likely to leave a car without the child. I'm not excusing these people, I'm bringing up an observation I've heard before.

I need to go sedate myself now. I am so depressed.

[Lubbock]

What Prez said.

[Neil Peart]

And if it was five months younger, it'd be legal to kill it.

[DeclinetoState]

I wish I had not read this article.It was bad enough to read the title (that of the article, although the slightly abbreviated version that appeared on this thread was pretty upsetting, too).

[CzechPrince]

This is why I support the death penalty.

[Wolfcounsel]

"I have heard people rail against the government for the airbag/carseat issue. IOW, if the government didn't force us to have airbags in our cars, baby car seats might still be allowed in the front seat and parents would be less likely to leave a car without the child. I'm not excusing these people, I'm bringing up an observation I've heard before." --Air Force Guy


The airbags, the safety bubble, the anti-gravity devices, the anti-inertial damper, all that crap put into our cars on orders by the assholes in government, they are no excuse at all for any adult to leave any small kids inside a car, or leave them unaccounted for 25 hours a day.

[Lubbock]

I don't understand how anyone can forget a child or a baby and leave them anywhere. A car or anywhere else.

Thirty five years ago when I was raising my son, did things like leaving kids in cars and going off to work happen and I [or the public in general] didn't know about it?

I never heard of it until the last eight-or-so years.

Leaving a kid in a carseat inside an automobile to cook while a parent goes off to work gets blamed on the busy lives we live.

Bullcorn.

Leaving a child in a carseat in summer is not the point of this article, however

Apparently, the parents brought the child home and set the carseat in the crib and walked away for eight days. Apparently, they were in the house while the baby was suffering.

You want too tell me that neither of them heard the baby cry at anytime before it finally died?

This was deliberate.

Convince me otherwise.

[Wolfcounsel]

"You want too tell me that neither of them heard the baby cry at anytime before it finally died?

This was deliberate.

Convince me otherwise." --Lubbock



I don't think any human reading this needs convincing about the evil of the "parents". Whether a baby is crying or not, no parent, guardian, or babysitter will ignore a child. And any dumbass who needs instructions on how to take care of a baby, well, he is lucky his parents at least did not have him murdered before he was born.<!-- / message -->

[DeclinetoState]

Well, I still think drugs were involved. Not that that's an excuse, any more than being a drunk driver excuses a person from being responsible for someone else's death while in that condition.

I think it would be very hard to pin a murder conviction on them, however, much less give them the death penalty. Manslaughter of some sort is the likely outcome.

[PrezLeefun]

Well, I still think drugs were involved. Not that that's an excuse, any more than being a drunk driver excuses a person from being responsible for someone else's death while in that condition.

I think it would be very hard to pin a murder conviction on them, however, much less give them the death penalty. Manslaughter of some sort is the likely outcome.


I get what you mean, but I really just dont care.
"She told police that caring for her baby Benjamin was not her duty and that it was James' responsibility."


Anyone who thinks that way is deserving of hell fire regardless of this being their brain on drugs.

[Lubbock]

I'm no a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV, but I don't know how any prosecutor could look at this [what we know at this point] and not call it murder.

Regardless of what the charge is, the two individuals should be given a fair trial, then taken immediately to a tall oak tree, their heads put through twin nooses, and they should be hanged by the neck until dead.

And then they should burn in the hottest fires in hell for the next one hundred million years.