LogicSoDeveloped
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2010
- Messages
- 3,429
Two Nashville parents charged in the murder of their 22-month-old son after police say he was given morphine to make him sleep could get their chance Thursday to argue for lower bond amounts so they can be released from jail.
Jamey and Christopher Chaffin have been in custody almost four months, since a grand jury indicted them in the death of their child, Bryson, whose body was found to have toxic levels of morphine, authorities said.
Jamey Chaffin is charged with murder and child neglect in the death of her 22-month-old son.
In the aftermath of the baby's death on June 20, 2013, police found the family home filthy with feces and garbage, pieced together a timeline in which the baby hadn't been checked on by adults for as long as eight hours, and learned from surviving siblings that the parents regularly gave them medication to put them to sleep at night.
That's according to police and court records made available since the January arrests of the parents on charges of murder and child neglect. The parents have been jailed on bonds of $150,000. The parents are scheduled for a bond reduction hearing Thursday in Davidson County Criminal Court.
In that time, the Chaffins have not been able to visit or make contact with the three surviving siblings — ages 8, 6 and 3 — adding to the toll on the extended family, said the boy's maternal grandmother, Kerry Kennedy, 49, of Old Hickory.
"I can tell you that they didn't hurt that baby," Kennedy said. "It's been really hard to deal with everything that's happened."
The siblings were placed into the custody of Jamey Chaffin's ex-husband — the biological father of two of them, according to records.
He first raised alarms about the Chaffin home about one month before the baby's death. In a letter to the Chaffins, he asked that they create a safe home for the four kids.
Neighbors had also noticed debris and hazards outside the Chaffin home at 1230 Bell Grimes Lane. But they told police they did not know about the conditions inside: piles of garbage bags, dirty diapers, animal feces, roaming cats, spilled pill bottles, a pig in a cage in the master bedroom and a large exotic bird. "Not fit for human habitation," a detective wrote.
Police and paramedics arrived around 2:30 p.m. the day the baby died. Records say the baby boy had been "screaming bloody murder" the night before, the father, 23, told police.
But after he left for work at 5:30 a.m. the next day, no one checked on the boy until one of the sisters found him with an "allergic reaction" and rushed to Jamey Chaffin, the child's mother, and then out the door to call 911 from a neighbor's house, records say.
Paramedics found Jamey Chaffin on the front steps with her dead baby boy in her arms, apologizing over and over to her "good baby."
A toxicology report turned up a toxic amount of morphine. Chasing that discovery, police learned from the siblings that they were often given "go to sleep medicine" most nights, which Kennedy denied.
Jamey Chaffin, 29, had extensive medical problems and was taking dozens of pills each day for different conditions and spent some days in a sleepy haze, records say. She had gotten morphine prescriptions in March and April.
Police have said they do not know how the morphine got into the child's system.
"Bryson was the happiest, most loving little baby I've ever seen, ever," grandmother Kerry Kennedy said. "My daughter, she can't hardly go on."
source: http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...urder-seek-release-jail/9971997/?sf26985108=1
Jamey and Christopher Chaffin have been in custody almost four months, since a grand jury indicted them in the death of their child, Bryson, whose body was found to have toxic levels of morphine, authorities said.
Jamey Chaffin is charged with murder and child neglect in the death of her 22-month-old son.
In the aftermath of the baby's death on June 20, 2013, police found the family home filthy with feces and garbage, pieced together a timeline in which the baby hadn't been checked on by adults for as long as eight hours, and learned from surviving siblings that the parents regularly gave them medication to put them to sleep at night.
That's according to police and court records made available since the January arrests of the parents on charges of murder and child neglect. The parents have been jailed on bonds of $150,000. The parents are scheduled for a bond reduction hearing Thursday in Davidson County Criminal Court.
In that time, the Chaffins have not been able to visit or make contact with the three surviving siblings — ages 8, 6 and 3 — adding to the toll on the extended family, said the boy's maternal grandmother, Kerry Kennedy, 49, of Old Hickory.
"I can tell you that they didn't hurt that baby," Kennedy said. "It's been really hard to deal with everything that's happened."
The siblings were placed into the custody of Jamey Chaffin's ex-husband — the biological father of two of them, according to records.
He first raised alarms about the Chaffin home about one month before the baby's death. In a letter to the Chaffins, he asked that they create a safe home for the four kids.
Neighbors had also noticed debris and hazards outside the Chaffin home at 1230 Bell Grimes Lane. But they told police they did not know about the conditions inside: piles of garbage bags, dirty diapers, animal feces, roaming cats, spilled pill bottles, a pig in a cage in the master bedroom and a large exotic bird. "Not fit for human habitation," a detective wrote.
Police and paramedics arrived around 2:30 p.m. the day the baby died. Records say the baby boy had been "screaming bloody murder" the night before, the father, 23, told police.
But after he left for work at 5:30 a.m. the next day, no one checked on the boy until one of the sisters found him with an "allergic reaction" and rushed to Jamey Chaffin, the child's mother, and then out the door to call 911 from a neighbor's house, records say.
Paramedics found Jamey Chaffin on the front steps with her dead baby boy in her arms, apologizing over and over to her "good baby."
A toxicology report turned up a toxic amount of morphine. Chasing that discovery, police learned from the siblings that they were often given "go to sleep medicine" most nights, which Kennedy denied.
Jamey Chaffin, 29, had extensive medical problems and was taking dozens of pills each day for different conditions and spent some days in a sleepy haze, records say. She had gotten morphine prescriptions in March and April.
Police have said they do not know how the morphine got into the child's system.
"Bryson was the happiest, most loving little baby I've ever seen, ever," grandmother Kerry Kennedy said. "My daughter, she can't hardly go on."
source: http://www.tennessean.com/story/new...urder-seek-release-jail/9971997/?sf26985108=1
