Wife of soldier charged with starving child to death

[proud2BlibKansan]

The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD | A federal grand jury has indicted a Fort Leonard Wood woman accused of starving her infant daughter to death.

The indictment replaces a criminal charge filed last month by prosecutors.

Kristin Marie Phillips, 33, faces the federal equivalent of a first-degree murder charge in the death of 11-month-old Alexis.

She faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

Prosecutors allege the baby had been dead for at least a day when paramedics and military police were called to the home. Three children ages 2, 5, and 14 were found alive.

Phillips’ husband, Sgt. Jason D. Phillips, was deployed to Iraq at the time but has since returned.

Federal prosecutors have the case because it happened on an Army post.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/559078.html

[babylonsister]

1. Awww, I hate to read these stories. How sad. nt

[pop goes the weasel]

2. it could be a medical issue

compounded by parental ignorance and a lack of social support, and not a criminal one. Either way, it's sad.

[hlthe2b]

3. I don't have kids, but I am just anguished when my pup

hurts herself in the slightest way--like when she lifts her paw & cries with snow frozen between her pads... I worry about her when I have to leave her to go to work and I look for excuses not to travel for work without her.... She is my "child" as much as any human could be.

So, no, I just can NOT fathom these stories....

[BlooInBloo]

23. I'm probably the only DUer who thinks it's fucking sick that people compare their pets to people...

.... like this.

[hlthe2b]

29. Probably so... one has to be able to truly love people to also

truly love animals..... Compassion is not limited only to other humans. To express that it is unfathomable to imagine such cruelty to a beloved pet, much less ones own child is hardly worthy of such crude derision.

People that love animals are not the ones who show such disregard for human life. Quite the opposite. Those who have little regard for animal life, on the other hand may likewise have limited regard for human life.

I'm sorry that by your comments you suggest that you are incapable of seeing or experiencing that in your life-- as expressed by your crude insult to those who do express love for people AND animals. You are the poorer for it.

[I work for workers]

4. I wonder why this story is titled as it is?

Why is it "wife of Soldier kills baby" instead of "crazy lady kills baby"? While I'm understanding the stress that Army service puts on a relationship more and more each day, someone who kills their own child has serious problems that existed before her husband's job entered the picture.

[Echo In Light]

5. Because up front they know she is an army wife living on an army post

And although charged, hasn't been found to be "crazy."

[Turbineguy]

6. There was a time

when we thought that a parent who kills a child was crazy. Now we feed them to the Justice system.

I guess that way we don't have to prevent it.

[Echo In Light]

7. "Crazy" is a very vague term. Are all soldiers who commit mass murder "crazy?"

[I work for workers]

10. It's depressing that calling a woman who kills her kid crazy

is somehow considered a controversial statement here.

[immoderate]

12. She let her baby starve to death. What's your definition of mental illness?

Do you have a scenario where this is sane? :shrug:

--IMM

[Echo In Light]

14. I'm not disagreeing, but my personal opinion doesn't matter: doctors, and the court, will determine

[immoderate]

15. The courts use a very narrow definition of insanity.

The doctor will know that she is mentally ill at the same time he testifies that she is not "legally" insane. It's a problem with our system. She may have known that something was wrong, but emotional problems prevented her from getting help.

--IMM

[Echo In Light]

16. ??? I simply replied as you're jumping my case over another poster's use of "crazy"

There are all sorts of problems, mental illness, spiritual sickness - sickness of the soul, that ravages humanity.

The way I see it, there's plenty of people who commit murder without being "crazy" enough to be institutionalized {whether that's to punish or rehabilitate/cure is another huge societal dilemma we're currently failing}.

[Turbineguy]

18. To clarify:

What I meant by "crazy" was she (is alleged to have) arrived at the conclusion to starve the child. In our culture, killing your children is not an accepted norm of behavior i.e. it is abnormal, insane, crazy, whatever. One of the things that has bothered me for a number of years is the fact that many people who do things like this are not really criminals in that they do not seek some advantage from their act. They have some other (medical or mental) problem, but in our society we turn such people over to the justice system to be punished.

It seems to me that losing your child would be punishment enough, if indeed punishment is even appropriate.

We used to solve our problems differently. Now we have the one-size-fits-all solution of the justice system and I'm not sure it is working all that well.

People who seek help in coping with their children (or many other issues) may quickly find themselves in the legal meatgrinder rather than getting any real help.

[Echo In Light]

19. 'I work for workers used' the term "crazy," and from there, this has been directed at me

Guess I'm missing something here...

He or she was registering their displeasure over the story's headline identifying her as a military wife, for the obvious reasons. I responded. I never advocated or endorsed the "one size fits all" approach at all ... but I'm not compelled to oblige when someone more or less insists that I agree with them.

People commit all sorts of horrendous acts for all sorts of reasons. Frankly I'm unsure as to why anything I've written in this thread warranted admonishments from others ...aside from the fact that many of my views do tend to rub some people the wrong way for a host of reasons and/or misunderstandings. Carry on...

[immoderate]

20. Sorry for the error.

Didn't mean to do any case jumping.

--IMM

[I work for workers]

8. If she was a lawyers wife living in the suburbs,

would the headline be "suburban lawyer's wife kills baby"? I don't get why a military wife get special treatment in this regard.

[Echo In Light]

11. I see local news items that use specifications like that all the time

Now, if you're simply partial to the military, and favor what it represents, then yes, I can see why it bothers you.

[I work for workers]

13. I expect to see that stuff in the first paragraph or two,

but it seldom makes the headlines. I'm not sure why it would either.

[susankh4]

9. This is not all that uncommon in situations where

mothers are isolated. If dad was overseas there was probably nobody checking in. Noone to notice. My guess is that this woman will be diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

How sad.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

17. What A Horrible Thing. I Hope She Rots.

Stories like this break my heart. I couldn't imagine being either so cold or so monumentally irresponsible. I hope she gets the justice she deserves...

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. And since I don't know the details, I will wait for them until I pass judgement

If she is mentally ill, I would hope she gets help. If she is just cruel, I would be comfortable with her rotting in prison.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

24. You Don't? I Do. She Starved An Infant To Death. It Inexcusable.

Hope she rots... What she did to that defenseless child...

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. I see you still have trouble reading

We don't yet know WHY she did this. If she is mentally ill, I hope she gets help. I don't believe in putting mentally ill people in prison, regardless of their crime.

It's called COMPASSION.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

26. Maybe She's AVegetarian, And ThoughThey Were Getting Nutrients. Maybe She Isn't Even A Woman At All!

Or maybe, since there is at least a 99% chance to believe so, she acted just completely irresponsibly and selfishly and allowed an infant to starve to death, which is utterly disgusting and worthy of my resentment.

Sorry, but I'm not one of these la la land people that just default to "oh, poor woman, she was probably mentally ill" every damn time something like this happens. It's stupid and it's quite irresponsible to do so. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that this woman was a schizophrenic or legally insane to the point she wasn't aware of her actions or consequences. If there was any previous indication she had such a condition, you could be sure it would've been mentioned in the article. Guess what: It wasn't. The overwhelming chances are that she was stressed like everyone else is in life, but so consumed with herself that she neglected a helpless infant thereby causing its death by starvation. Since the overwhelming odds are that, as opposed to some one off no reason to believe it for a second cliche theory that she was mentally ill, I am well within logical rights to respond with the resentment in which I do, as opposed to the ridiculous angle of playing the used wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too often in cases like this "mentally ill" card. I doubt she was a schizophrenic or legally insane, and I think it's silly when choosing each side, to err on the side of that since it's so unlikely to be the case. I hope she rots for what she did to that poor baby, and since all indications point to her NOT being some schizophrenic or the like, then I have every damn logical right to say that, since in my opinion it's the only appropriate action to such a horrendous act by an individual. She allowed her infant child to starve to death for gods sake. Yeah, she deserves to rot for that.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Where are you getting your information?

Did you find a link to more info on this story? What do you mean all indications point to her not being schizophrenic or the like? If you have a link please share.

[RedCappedBandit]

28. The infant was 11 months old.

Not much time since the birth FOR her to have any previous records indicating she was experiencing a mental illness.

[w8liftinglady]

22. sounds like Post-partum depression combined with PTSD.

I wonder how many times her husband was deployed,and she had to tend to 3..then 4...kids by herself on an Army salary?