WA - Freya Garden, 19 mos, dies of head trauma, Seattle, 16 Jan 2005

mysteriew

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A King County judge dismissed murder charges Wednesday against a 13-year-old girl accused of shaking a toddler to death in West Seattle after prosecutors decided their case was too thin to convict the teen.

Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be brought again.

On the way into court, the girl sounded defiant: "Whether I have to go to jail or not, I'm not going to take the rap for something I didn't do."

Family members of the toddler, 19-month-old Freya Garden, broke down several times during and after the brief hearing.

Freya's mother, Morningstar Garden, said that justice was not done for her daughter. The case shows, she said, "that if you're 13 and the right color and have a couple of dollars, you can do what you want to and get away with it.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/244385_shakenbaby13.html
 
I saw film of the mom in court during the hearing. She is just heartbroken. It made you cry just to watch her.

JMHO
fran
 
I saw this last week and I found alot of things disturbing. Why would you have a thirteen year old watch a baby AND another child for a whole WEEKEND?? The mother and her boyfriend were in the bedroom most of the time and there wasn't anything for the kids to do except the tv and dvd player. What kind of adults were these??? I think this child was "tricked" into a "confession" and I think there was enough reason to believe it to be POSSIBLE someone else shook the child since the baby was alone for a couple of hours with the mother and boyfriend while the babysitter and the older child was at the movies. Very strange circumstances and a very tragic one.:(
 
I viewed this piece produced by 48 Hours & the interview by the Detectives was horrible & it reminded me of Cody Posey.

I understand that LE has the right to lie during interviews, with Adults I agree with being cunning but this ploy with children is not right without the presence of an adult who is there to protect them from having idea's planted, their minds are too easy to manipulate.

JMHO
 
I read through the 9 pages - and I absolutely believe Ashley.

(One aside, it's irritating to me how adults try to keep saying how protective they are, when there is no way in the world, in the WORLD, my parents (who weren't that protective) would have let me stay in that weird abandoned house for a 3 day weekend out of town with a woman named Morningstar Garden and her stud. Why do parents feel the need to act like they're protective? They may as well have told Ashley to play in the street).

This child, Freya, was described from the beginning as being fussy and inconsolable. That's the first sign of shaken baby syndrome, and I suspect that child had been shaken a LOT, and the final staw to her life came when Ashley took the older child to a movie and Freya was left with the mother and her boyfriend.

Thank God Ashley is free, and maybe at some point, although it's doubtful, Morningstar Garden will be charged with both the death of Freya and her other baby who died suspiciously.
 
I this on 48 hours too and was dumbfounded. There is a whole heck of a lot more
reserach into this mother that needs to be done ASAP!!

mjak
 
KatherineQ said:
(One aside, it's irritating to me how adults try to keep saying how protective they are, when there is no way in the world, in the WORLD, my parents (who weren't that protective) would have let me stay in that weird abandoned house for a 3 day weekend out of town with a woman named Morningstar Garden and her stud. Why do parents feel the need to act like they're protective? They may as well have told Ashley to play in the street).

Katherine,

The parents weren't aware that she was there. She was supposed to be staying at a hotel near a party Ashley's parents were attending with MorningStar. She was also not supposed to be there all weekend. I also believe MorningStar had something to do with Freya's death.
 
From March 2013:

Seattle settles with baby sitter accused of murder

http://www.columbian.com/news/2013/mar/21/seattle-settles-with-baby-sitter-accused-of-murder/

When she was 13, Ashley Howes was charged with killing a toddler she had been baby-sitting at a West Seattle home.

A judge ultimately dismissed the murder charge in 2005, ruling that Seattle police detectives violated Howes’ Fifth Amendment rights by not advising her of her Miranda rights and not giving her a chance to have her parents present when she was questioned.

Although Howes is now 21, married and living in Port Townsend, the scars she bears from being detained, questioned and charged have not faded, says her attorney Lincoln Beauregard. “The damage they did by charging her and dragging her through this ruined her life.”

On Tuesday, the city of Seattle agreed to pay Howes $215,000 to settle a federal lawsuit she filed in 2011 against the city and four of the detectives who questioned her during the homicide investigation.

Even after the criminal charge was dropped, Howes was shunned and taunted for years by classmates, who called her a “baby killer,” according to the lawsuit. She began to cut herself and attempted suicide at least seven times, including once when she attempted to slit her own throat, the lawsuit claims.
 

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