Mom gets new trial in infant’s fatal overdose

Associated Press

NAPOLEON, Ohio

A judge has granted a new trial for a woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter after her infant daughter died from an overdose of painkillers and anti-anxiety medication.

Judge Keith Muehlfeld of Henry County Common Pleas Court in northwest Ohio ruled Monday in favor of 24-year-old Jayme Schwenkmeyer. Schwenkmeyer was convicted in August of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the death of 13-month-old Kamryn Gerken at her Liberty Center home in 2007.

Prosecutors had told jurors in the trial that Schwenkmeyer had failed to take care of her daughter and it didn’t matter whether the toddler was given the drugs or if she found them and put them in her mouth.

Schwenkmeyer’s attorney, David Klucas, had argued in the motion for the new trial that prosecutors failed to reveal a witness who could have implicated her live-in boyfriend in the death, the Northwest Signal reported.

Klucas said Monday that the “potential witness has some real benefit to the client,” The Blade reported.

A message was left Tuesday for county prosecutor John Hanna.

Schwenkmeyer was released pending her trial scheduled for March 31. The boyfriend, David Knepley, faces trial in February on the same charges.

Schwenkmeyer’s new trial will be her third.