GUILTY PA - Janessa Davis, 4, dead of oxycodone OD, Stroudsburg, 6 May 2014

Police say four-year-old Janessa Davis, who had been in Winbush`s care since infancy, died of an overdose of oxycodone back in May at the home on North Second Street in Stroudsburg where Winbush used to live with the girl... The Monroe County coroner later determined the girl had been dead for hours when EMTs arrived.

Winbush had told police the girl had been sick with a fever of 101 degrees. She had been giving her over-the-counter medicine, but denied giving her any of those pills...

“A four-year-old little girl overdosed on oxycodone whether accidentally given or purposely given and we believe it was purposely given to her because of the medical issues she was having,” said Det. Richard Wolbert with Stroud Area Regional Police.

Click to expand...

On Tuesday, nearly two years after finding Janessa unresponsive in bed, a tearful Winbush found herself being led away in handcuffs, sentenced to six to 23 months in Monroe County Correctional Facility to be followed by two years of probation, after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter (an accidental killing) and illegally possessing controlled substances (medications for which she had no prescriptions).

Looking on, some of the women in her family sobbed loudly while other relatives wept. Incarceration, even in county jail as opposed to state prison, is too harsh a sentence for a woman, known as “Mom” and “Grandma” by her own and other children alike, who would never intentionally harm any child, they said.

“I thought my mom was taking on way too much when she took in my nieces, then my nephew and then another infant,” said Winbush’s son, Charles Cornish, requesting leniency when he and the family were given a chance to address the court moments before the sentence was imposed. “I thought it was too much pressure, especially for somebody in her health condition. To lock her up, where nobody’s gonna understand what happened to Janessa was a tragic accident, is way too much. She’s a great, great woman with a great big heart.”

Click to expand...

“This is one of the hardest cases in which I’ve ever defended a client,” said attorney Jason LaBar. “It doesn’t matter whether Janessa somehow found and put oxycodone pills into her mouth, which is unlikely since all of the meds had childproof caps and were on a top shelf out of children’s reach, or whether Ms. Winbush fed her those pills to help her sleep. We clearly have someone here whose actions unintentionally caused this little girl’s tragic death.”

Assistant District Attorney Michael Rakaczewski conceded Winbush acted without malice, but said she still shouldn’t have been raising children with illegally obtained meds in the home and no access to properly prescribed meds.

Click to expand...

Moments before being sentenced, Winbush said through tears, “I take responsibility. When Janessa died, I died. And when they took my grandchildren, I went numb. I loved Janessa with my whole heart. All I wanted was to protect her and keep her safe. I’m so sorry.”

Even Monroe County Court Judge Stephen Higgins was not unmoved as he looked through letters, sent by Winbush’s family in support of her, and found a picture, of Janessa wearing a princess crown at her fourth birthday party, calling her an “angel.”

“I believe you wanted nothing but to help Janessa when making this terrible, terrible mistake,” Higgins told Winbush when imposing sentence. “It seems you took in her and other children, with nothing but loving intentions, and were then left on your own without any support to raise them, while struggling yourself. We note Janessa’s biological mother has had little, if any, contact with her and isn’t here at this sentencing. I really don’t understand why this little girl had to die. It’s very unfortunate.”

Click to expand...

A Pennsylvania appeals court has refused a plea by prosecutors to increase the prison term slapped on a grandmother who accidentally killed her ill 4-year-old granddaughter with an overdose of pain-killers.

The Superior Court ruling issued this week in an opinion by Senior Judge William H. Platt upholds the 6- to 23-month sentence Mary Winbush was ordered to serve in the Monroe County Prison.

Despite her own history of drug abuse, it appears that Winbush's record of charity, especially toward hard-luck children in her family, saved her from a much more severe state prison term.

Click to expand...

Higgins stuck with his 6- to 23-month sentence after a later hearing sought by prosecutors who challenged it as being "excessively lenient." During that hearing, the girl's mother urged Higgins to impose a harsher penalty.

Yet, as Platt noted, the mother and father had abandoned the girl when she was 2 months old. Winbush had taken the child in and cared for her with no financial support from the parents. Winbush's supporters testified she had done the same for other children in her family.

In backing the sentence Higgins imposed, Platt cited the county judge's decision to credit Winbush for the aid she had given to others and the fact that she took full responsibility for her granddaughter's death.

Click to expand...