UPDATE 2: Heaven Kristina Smith and Corey Alan Bryant
NORFOLK FATHER SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS FOR TWIN BABY’S DEATH
Excerpts from an article by Michelle Washington – PilotOnline.com
Corey Bryant said he didn’t know that his wife was starving their 10-month-old twin daughters.
One girl, Miracle Grace, died on April 8, 2008, the day Bryant returned from a three-week Navy cruise. The other girl, Heaven LeeAnna, survived, but was hospitalized for months with extreme malnutrition and dehydration.
Prosecutor Jill Harris argued that Bryant not only knew about but participated in the girls’ starvation and neglect for months before his departure. Although the girls were with their mother, Heaven Smith, in the days immediately preceding Miracle’s death, Harris said, Bryant told Smith not to take the children to the hospital and later told Smith to lie to police about where the girls had been.
“The father is just as culpable,” Harris said.
The arguments came Monday during Bryant’s sentencing hearing. Circuit Judge Mary Jane Hall convicted Bryant, 23, in July of murder and neglect. On Monday, Hall rejected arguments from Bryant’s defense lawyer that the murder conviction should be thrown out. Hall ruled that Bryant should serve 15 years for the crimes.
Smith pleaded guilty in March to murder and neglect. She is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.
Several doctors testified during Bryant’s trial that the girls had been starved for months. Doctors could see the girls’ ribs and hip bones clearly on their emaciated bodies, through scaly, dry skin covered in bloody rashes. Their legs had stiffened into an angle, as if sitting in a chair, that medical personnel could not unbend. Smith testified
against Bryant and said they left the girls alone, strapped into infant chairs, each day when they went to work, and that Bryant doped the girls so they wouldn’t cry. Police found rank conditions at the family’s apartment in the 8700 block of Monitor Way, with piles of soiled diapers, mold ing jars of baby food, and a thermostat set to just over 50 degrees.
Bryant cried during his testimony Monday. Under questioning by his lawyer, B. Thomas Reed, Bryant said he didn’t know about the conditions at his home or that his wife was not feeding the children or taking them to a sitter while she worked.
If he had it all to do again, Bryant said, he would have taken the girls to a sitter or to his mother.
Harris assailed Bryant with questions. Didn’t Smith tell him Miracle was barely breathing when they talked on the phone the night before the girl died? Hadn’t he bought a 12-pack of beer for himself every day, along with take-out food and video games, while his children starved in the next room?
Bryant’s responses were barely audible. Harris also questioned him about his relationship with a new girlfriend and pictures posted on the Internet that show him holding her child in which he is captioned a proud parent.
Corey Bryant’s sentencing was a bit on the complicated side, but I’m going to attempt to spell it out for everyone. He didn’t receive a straight fifteen year for murdering baby Miracle Grace, instead, things went something like this.
Bryant was actually convicted of three counts; One count of 2nd-degree murder and two counts of felony child abuse.
For the first count of 2nd-degree murder, Corey Bryant was given a 15 year sentence. However, the presiding judge, Circuit Judge Mary Jane Hall, suspended 8 years of 
his sentence. This means he only has to serve 7 of the 15 years, but he has to serve every day of that 7 years.
For each of his two counts of felony child neglect, Judge Hall gave Corey Bryant 10 years, suspended after 4 years. The sentences of all three counts are to be served consecutively – That’s how they came up with the 15 years in prison (7 years + 4 years + 4 years). Corey’s going to serve all 15 years without the possibility of parole.
See Corey Bryant’s court records
Doesn’t seem like enough to me, not for starving an innocent little baby to death and almost doing the same thing to her twin sister. Bank robbers get more time than this on a regular basis, without killing or hurting anyone.
Corey Bryant’s wife, Heaven Kristina Smith, pleaded guilty in March, 2009, to one count of second degree murder and one count of felony child neglect. She testified against Bryant during his trial and is now awaiting sentencing.
35 Comments »
I have autism and severe depression. I may never have children because of my inability to function and be self reliant. I know better than to get pregnant. That bitch killing her babies and HIM aiding her! Those babies literally would have been better off raised by a pack of wolves. Wolves work together as a family unit to help each other and take turns watching the cubs. Wolves have been known to care of human children who were lost or abandoned.
“I may never have children because of my inability to function and be self reliant. I know better than to get pregnant.”
Your willingness to say this tells me that if you have kids you’ll probably be an awesome mom (but you won’t realize it until your kid gets her 2nd master’s degree and an Oscar). If you do, give ‘em a snuggle for me.
Give yourself a pat on the back. You are smart enough to stop and acknowledge that much. Perhaps if some of these breeders thought that way, there would be less baby deaths. There are not enough people like you in the world, and as MC said, for that you would probably be a better parent than most.
Knowing and doing something about your own weaknesses are what make great moms! I think if you ever decide you are well enough to have a child you will be a wonderful mother. As for these two, I myself had to stop breastfeeding my infant when she was 7 months old because she wasn’t gaining any weight….she would cry all the time, it was heart-breaking. I cannot imagine how sick someone would have to be to deliberately do that to two such beautiful children. They both deserved life in prison at the very least…
I feel for the surviving twin who will forever feel a void when she could have had a playmate to grow up with. It is sad when humans who are supposedly more intelligent than animals can’t take care of the babies they make. Is the original story filed under sloth? Cuz these people are the height of LAZY!
What a couple of dirtbags. I hope they both get what they deserve in prison.
So what is the point in 15 years? Punishment? if so it is not nearly enough time to punish someone for the torture and hell those helpless babies went through. Starvation and dehydration are painful, slow deaths and those babies suffered and the survivor will suffer her entire life knowing her twin should be with her. He on the other hand will be fed, given shelter, medical attention, opportunity for recreation. Doesn’t sound like punishment to me. Rehabilitation? How do you rehabilitate him into an actual human being that isn’t a sociopath? Truly, it would take a sociopath to watch his own children starving to death wouldn’t it? He deserves the death penalty. Do we really want someone with the ability to overlook his babies starving to death before his eyes back into society??? And yes he did know..prosecution proved that this starvation was ongoing while he was at home, prior to his 3 week cruise.
I am tired of the “ignorance” plea we hear it all the time! People all over the world that have no education, no technology and no way to get around other than their two feet know that they MUST feed their children! For the “Father” of those two babies to say he did not know that they were starving tells me he NEVER picked up his children, NEVER cuddled them,NEVER bathed them, Never changed a diaper! Why the fuck do people have children and do these things? It totally baffles me, I really can not wrap my head around it!! The “mother” geez what do you say about her? I think a condition for parole must be sterilization…because those two will be back on the streets one day and both at a young enough age to breed!! I mean what I say about the sterilization,if you kill your own child one of the punishments should be sterilization,period!!!!
I am glad that he is being punished. 15 years is better than nothing, and if there’s an “oops” and some of the general population, guys who rarely get to see, feed, hold, and kiss their babies even though they want to are most likely going to take out their frustrations on this little punk.
I agree that sterilization is the best course of action in this case. I’m sure that the ACLU and their ilk will cite the 8th amendment in this case, though (although the 8th amendment only bars the Federal government from such actions). Once again though, the rights of the person found guilty in a court of law trump the rights of the victims. It makes me sick.
Some states used to sterilize criminals back than, but it only applied only to males if I am correct. We don’t because some court ruling cited equal protection clause because females were not sterilized as well.
And hopefully there are a few inmates in there who don’t appreciate what he did to his own children. I am sure they will punish him frequently for it.
I forgot about the 14th amendment banning states from “cruel and unusual punishment.” Pity.
Oh my god. The bent legs weren’t something I’d read about before. At 10 months my babies were walking and babbling and exploring. They would have cried in agnony sitting strapped in a chair for an hour – much less a day, every day, after day after day…and starving, thirsty.
These two are monsters. And they dragged it out for 10 months.
Where was grandma?
And as Ferret and Pyschochick wrote about the survivor’s mental health for missing her twin,the physical growth retardation will plague that child for the rest of her life! Her thought process’s, higher brain function and her physical health will never be a 100% not after being starved for the first year of life.
Psychochick is absolutely right, those babies were better off being taking care of by a pack of wolves. It is a damn shame that animals take better care of thier young than some humans do!
These two fucks should be fed to the woodchipper instead of sitting behind bars wasting taxpayer money because there is just no hope for them!
And who thought to name that fat, ugly bitch “Heaven”? She sure as hell didn’t look like she was missing any meals!!!
I was thinking the same thing! That crazy bitch went ahead and named the surviving daughter “Heaven” as well. That poor girl will have to walk around with the name of a murdering scum bag who killed her sister “Miracle Grace”. That makes me sick to think about.
I feel sick to my stomach. Anyone who has been through parenthood can relate to skipping your own meals, or at least delaying them to take care of the needs of your baby… changing their diapers, feeding them, just holding them and loving them. Twins? that would be doubled but these two did not even ATTEMPT to meet their babies’ needs.
Was there no family who was aware of this happening? By the description of the babies’ conditions, anyone who came into contact with them would have to know that they were not being fed.
Typo at the end Max he did not murder baby Heaven Leeanna, just Miracle Grace. Right underneath the box.
Thanks Buddy, I’ll fix that right away
I want to see what Mommy is going to get.
In his cell should be a razor blade, rope, sleeping pills and a big bottle of his favorite liquor. If at any time he wants to die, great – Let him take his own life. He’ll still die a better death than the baby did.
The description of the home makes me sick. When my wife left me I took some time to make sure ALL her stuff was off my property and I was sickened at what I found in what appeared to be a clean house! And guess what – all the trash was removed for free!
If these parents are ever let out, they need to be spayed an neutered – so that no one will be born into the hell that these two created. Sure these two may choose never to mate again, but once out they may seek others as to start the process all over again!
Fred, I was just thinking about you. I hadn’t seen a post from you in a while, and I was wondering if things were OK. Good to see you around today.
I’ve been either quite busy, sick, tired or a combination of all of the above. Also the department at work has been “restructured” such that the occasional moments I used to take to relax and unwind have been phased out……. This site is great for channeling certain energies that could have a negative impact if vented at work.
This Thanksgiving has given me an opportunity to see what is really important in my life and after crunching the numbers (balancing the checkbooks), talking with my wife and old friends I now realize that I must make some choices….. Things right now are not bad, but the reality is that I must make things better….
New Years resolutions don’t seem to work because they are based on desires, where as I am hoping that a Thanksgiving resolution works because it’s based upon what I am thankful for.
My wife was really cool about a lot of stuff that most women would (like my daughter) have killed me over. We crashed her class reunion and I hung around with one of my old girlfriends and her friend (who’s really cool as well). My wife had her friends and one of her friends married one of my old girlfriend’s friends… So we were all in a big group, but still I have a wonderful trusting wife and I want a better marriage….
I also want to brush up my computer skills and finally really get a site out there that has been sitting on my home machine for years…
I also want to stay connected o friends, reconnect with old friends and meet new people with common interests….
I also want to finish a few stories that I want to contribute to this site as well. I am sure that one will really draw some fire……
But thanks for thinking about me….. it’s nice to know that I am thought of.
I hope your Thanksgiving (and to all on this site) was more than just food, but also friends, family and a renewed view on life.
Fred, I enjoy your posts, your point of view, and your willingness to debate difficult subjects. You admit when you’re wrong and you don’t gloat when you’re right. You and I disagree on lots of things, particularly religion, but that only seems to add more depth to our interaction. If all Christians were like you, I’d have no problem with any of them. I hope you’re able to find time to post more, but even if not, know that you are thought of and missed!
Thank you.
One of my friends on Facebook said something about the “Christain Side Hug” thing, and I found that to be somewhat true and the people who do it either lame or they have their brains between their legs.
There is a joke about a church lady who yells at an older man for beiing a drunk because he left his truck in front of a bar – so the next night he left his truck in front of her house!
To me the best Christains admit that they are still sinners and realize that a savior is needed – aka Jesus.
The day I say “When I WAS a sinner…” will be the day that my life here on Earth is finished.
To me sin is “Soul Candy” it’s bad for me, but just a few minutes on this porn site……
A good bok that I’d like more Christains to read is “No More Christain Nice Guy”…….
A real Christian should tell the truth rather than lie as to avoid a conflict… Sure the “nice” guy would lie to make everything OK, but is doing such good????
Of coarse that does not give someone the licensee to tell their mother that “Supper Sucked”, but one can tone down hate to a dislike without telling a lie.
Many of today’s churches have turned the “Lion of Zion” into a kitten, and “feminized” Jesus. Jesus made enemies…..
Doing the right thing will make enemies – just ask the parent of any teenager….
She look like Buckwheat. He look like a new cell mates bitch.
Part of her hair makes it look like Alfalfa was behind her and she backed into him (remember how he had part of his hair sticking up – I see it fallen to the right side of the picture)
Can someone please tell me why God gives people like this children?
I wish I could answer that one myself. The fact that they are both so ugly should be enough to keep the sperm and egg from ever uniting…..
Makes you wonder how they managed to make such beautiful little girls huh?
Just her face is birth-control enough for me!
Hey Fred, hope everything works out for you, you sound like another one of the many decent guys on here,
Now regarding the thing in the picture….if I wasn’t already gay, it would make me go running back to the ex-husband :)
shit if all the ladies looked like that bitch,ide be goin blowup dolls my damn self.
Wait, this fucker ensured he had beer and food for his belly, but could not bother with his two daughters? Why not just lock him in a cell, strapped to a chair and starve him? Seven years is shit for what he did.
I can’t even wrap my mind around the fact that this went on day after day after day and neither one of those “parents” wavered in their ability to actively torture those little babies?!