Dillon – Victoria Ford and Kelly McInnis, both of Lake View, SC, pled guilty today before Circuit Court Judge Paul Burch to unlawful neglect of a child for the 2015 death of their two-month old baby, Isaiah. Judge Burch sentenced Ford to eight years suspended upon the service of three years with three years of probation to follow. McInnis was sentenced to eight years suspended upon the service of 18 months with three years of probation to follow.
According to SLED Special Agent Cheryl McCall, who investigated the case along with Lake View Police Chief Wayne Campbell, Ford and McInnis neglected to seek medical attention for the child when it was obvious he was severely dehydrated, among other obvious medical issues. Instead, Ford and McInnis waited about two weeks until the child’s regularly-scheduled checkup. By that point, the child was so sick he could not survive. McCall said at the hearing that the child was so dehydrated, the doctor who saw him could not determine the ethnicity of the child and personally carried him over to the emergency room. Baby Isaiah was then taken to MUSC in Charleston, SC, where he died several days later.
“There are no winners today in this very sad case,” said Fourth Circuit Assistant Solicitor Shipp Daniel, who prosecuted the case. “No one believes these parents wanted their child to die, but there is no doubt they were extremely negligent in the way they cared for Isaiah. There’s no amount of punishment that any court can give them that will be any worse than what they’re going to have to live with for the rest of their lives, but at the same time, we have to send a message that any amount of negligence when raising a child – particularly negligence of this magnitude – will not be tolerated in our community.”
Originally, the child’s maternal grandparents were also charged since they, too, had care and custody of the child during the two-week period where medical evidence suggested someone should have known the child was in grave medical danger yet did nothing. However, competency evaluations ordered by the Court determined that both grandparents were not competent to stand trial. Ford and McInnis, who also underwent competency evaluations, were found to be competent.
“We are thankful for Agent McCall’s help in this case,” said Chief Campbell. “Today, we served as Baby Isaiah’s voice and got some justice for him. The citizens of Lake View should feel safe and secure knowing that we have such dedicated law enforcement officers willing to stand up for all citizens of our community.”
Daniel added that without law enforcement’s thorough investigation of this case, the outcome would not have been the same.
