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Mother shot 13-month-old boy in stroller for insurance money, say defense attorneys for teen charged in murder
Jury selection in the trial of De'Marquise Elkins, 18, begins Monday, but his lawyers say Sherry West had 'financial interest in the death of her son,' Antonio Santiago.
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By Nina Golgowski / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, August 18, 2013, 12:04 PM
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Sherry West/AP
On March 21, Antonio Santiago was fatally shot in his stroller just days after his first birthday in Brunswick, Ga.
Attorneys are set to pin a Georgia mother who witnessed her 13-month-old son heartlessly shot between the eyes as the real killer behind his death.
Defense attorneys say Sherry West had "financial interest in the death of her son," Antonio Santiago, after she took out a life insurance policy before his savage murder in March, according to a pretrial motion.
"Other evidence of record suggests Sherry West is mentally unstable, gave several inconsistent accounts of how the crime transpired, and had a financial interest in the death of her son in the form of an insurance policy," public defender Kevin Gough said in a court motion filed Aug. 5.
Jury selection begins Monday at the Cobb County courthouse in Marietta where 18-year-old De'Marquise Elkins faces life in prison if convicted of Antonio's murder.
West was pushing her child in a stroller on March 21, six weeks after his first birthday, when prosecutors say she was held at gunpoint by the then 17-year-old whose age spared him a possible death sentence if convicted. When the mother was discovered empty handed, the teen who prosecutors say shot a man only 10 days earlier in another attempted street robbery continued.
"He kept asking, and I just said 'I don't have it,"' West recalled to The Associated Press the day after the slaying. "And he said, 'Do you want me to kill your baby?' And I said, 'No, don't kill my baby!"'
When Glassey was contacted on July 30 by an attorney for Elkins in Woodstown, N.J., Glassey, who was being held in jail for failing to appear in court in an unrelated case, declined to confirm her story told to WTLV.
"I don't want to incriminate anyone," she said, according to a transcript.
Defense attorneys have said in court filings that they have audio recordings and documents showing the child's mother had dealings with Gerber Life Insurance Co.
According to its website, Gerber Life sells life insurance policies for children starting as early as infancy.
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