BROCKTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A Whitman woman has been ordered held on $25,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from the death of her 2-year-old daughter last year.
Shaniqua Leonard, 29, was arraigned in Brockton Superior Court on manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges in connection with the death of 2-year-old Lyric Farrell, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced.
If Leonard posts bail, she has been ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet, have no contact with her additional children, abstain from drug and alcohol use, undergo mental health screenings, and not carry a firearm.
Emergency crews responding to a 911 call from Leonard who said her daughter was unresponsive at 863 Washington St. #3 in Whitman shortly after midnight on Dec. 28, 2019, transported Lyric to Brockton Hospital.
“Ms. Leonard called 911 and in about a three-and-a-half minute call, she reported she didn’t think her daughter was breathing,” a prosecutor told the court. “When the EMTs arrived, she [Lyric] was propped up…propped up on a couch and wrapped in a blanket.”
She was later flown to Boston Children’s Hospital after a subdural hematoma was found on her brain, the DA’s office said.
On Dec. 31, around 3 p.m., Lyric was taken off of life support.
Leonard allegedly failed to obtain immediate medical attention for her daughter who the DA’s office says was showing signs of medical distress.
An autopsy conducted by the Office of the State Medical Examiner found that Lyric died as a result of complications from blunt force trauma head injuries, the DA’s office added.
Investigators also allege that Leonard recorded videos of her daughter in distress.
“In all the videos, or most of the videos, mom is yelling at the 2-year-old and picking her head up and trying to get her to look around but the 2-year-old would slump her head right back down,” the prosecutor said. “She is naked in most of the videos. She looks very, very thin.”
Lyric reportedly had a subdural hematoma, subarachnoid hematoma, and hemorrhaging of her optic nerve and retina.
Doctors indicated that the injuries could not have been caused by Lyric banging her own head, which Leonard claimed to investigators, according to the DA’s office.
“The child’s condition included bruises and cuts of various stages of healing all over her body, including places such as her shoulder blades, where the child couldn’t reach herself, ” the prosecutor said.
The prosecution had urged the judge to set Leonard’s bail at $100,000.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 22.
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