[DiamondSmiles]

April 4, 2014

By JEFFREY COLLINS

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — A judge sentenced a South Carolina woman to 20 years in prison Friday for killing her 6 week old daughter with what prosecutors say was an overdose of morphine delivered through her breast milk.

Stephanie Greene, 39, said nothing as the minimum sentence was handed down. A jury found the former nurse guilty of homicide by child abuse the day before and she could have faced up to life behind bars.

Her lawyer said she will appeal and it's likely the case will be tied up for years to come. Both the prosecutor and Greene's lawyer agree no mother has ever been prosecuted in the United States for killing her child through a substance transmitted in breast milk.

Greene's daughter, Alexis, was born healthy, but was found dead in her parents' bed just 46 days after she was born in November, 2010.

An autopsy found a level of morphine in the baby's body that a pathologist testified could have been lethal for an adult. With no needle marks on the child's body, authorities decided the drugs must have gotten into the infant through her mother's milk, prosecutor Barry Barnette said.

A review of her medical records showed Greene carefully hid her pregnancy from her primary doctor. After a home pregnancy test showed she was pregnant, she told her primary doctor she needed to go to a gynecologist for a birth control.

"She then got prenatal care from that doctor while not telling her all the painkillers she was taking. She also skipped appointments with her primary physician when it was obvious she was pregnant and sent her husband to pick up her painkiller prescriptions", Barnette said.

"She was a nurse. She knew how to work the system," Barnette said. "She caused the loss of that child."

"Greene spent more than 10 years racked with chronic pain after a car wreck before her unexpected pregnancy with her husband in 2010," attorney Rauch Wise said.

Wise argued that prosecutors didn't prove how the baby got the morphine and there is little scientific evidence that enough morphine can gather in breast milk to kill an infant.

"Greene already suffered an immeasurable loss with the death of her child and shouldn't have to face prison time," Wise said.

"Society wants to portray people who need painkillers as drug addicts and horrible people, but Greene and others often are just trying to get through each day without debilitating pain," her lawyer said.

"She needed those meds to get up in the morning and function," Wise said. "She was on total disability because of her pain, her fibromyalgia and all the other things wrong with her."

Greene will have to serve 16 years in prison before she is eligible for parole.

​Stephanie Greene of South Carolina is guilty of homicide by child abuse.
Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office

[Kanda444]

horrible..... i'd comment more but i feel like im not getting the full story here.

[jesse]

I am not totally convinced this woman needs to be in prison for 20 years......

Something not quite right.

[TwistedSisterr]

she is a nurse. she knew that baby would die if she breastfed.
rule of thumb...
never put anything in your body if your breastfeeding if you wouldnt put it directly in your babys mouth.

[winvens]

This case reminds me of that Russian woman whose baby died from all the alcohol in her milk. Hint for women in these situations: pump and discard.

[Kelseecat65]

WTF was she breastfeeding for??

[GRiZ]

[Megamel29]

Originally Posted by Kelseecat65 ↗

WTF was she breastfeeding for??

That's what I was thinking. Was she taking the drugs during the pregnancy too? If she used formula the baby would probably be alive. For her to be that sneaky she had to know what she was doing was wrong.

[DiamondSmiles]

Look at her photo! That, "deer in the headlights look," says it all!

"Duh! What?" (in a Vinnie Barbarino accent)

Another creature who should have given her baby to a woman or couple who wanted her.

My niece couldn't even take her allergy meds when pregnant.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Anom Alley ↗

This case reminds me of that Russian woman whose baby died from all the alcohol in her milk. Hint for women in these situations: pump and discard.

I don't remember that one.