UPDATE: Terri Sullivan and Scott Sullivan
TUCSON MOTHER WHO LET NEWBORN STARVE GETS 25 YEARS TO LIFE
excerpts from an article by Andrea Rivera and Kim Smith – The Arizona Daily Star
Feb 25, 2010–A Tucson mother of four had nothing to say Wednesday before she was formally sentenced to life in prison for starving her 6-week-old daughter to death.
Also in the same courthouse Wednesday, Terri Lynn Sullivan’s husband went on trial separately in the baby’s death. Scott D. Sullivan is charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in connection with Kimberlie Sullivan’s death in August 2008.
Terri Sullivan, 27, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last month, agreeing to serve a life sentence with parole possible after 25 years.
Kimberlie was born on July 14, 2008, weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces. Her siblings were 2, 3 and 6 years old, according to court documents. The baby weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces when she died.
On Aug. 30, 2008, Terri Sullivan called 911 saying she found Kimberlie in her swing and she wasn’t breathing. When paramedics arrived, they found Scott Sullivan performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They took over CPR but declared the emaciated baby dead a short time later.
The Sullivans gave conflicting accounts about how often they fed the baby, but they acknowledged that they had sought no medical help for her deteriorating condition, court documents said.
On Wednesday, Pima County Assistant Public Defender Darlene Edminson-O’Brien told Judge Richard Fields in county Superior Court that Terri Sullivan’s childhood and intelligence level contributed to “the situation she found herself in,” but she didn’t elaborate. Documents with those details have been sealed at the defense attorney’s request.
Deputy Pima County Attorney Carolyn Nedder said life in prison was the appropriate sentence for Terri Sullivan.
At the start of Scott Sullivan’s trial, witnesses told jurors that Kimberlie was emaciated, frail and malnourished when they responded to her family’s apartment after her mother called 911.Then jurors saw photos that Tucson police detectives took on Aug. 30, 2008, after the baby had been pronounced dead in a room in her family’s east-side apartment.
The photos showed Kimberlie’s face was sunken in, her skin was saggy, and her bones protruded through her skin. In one photo, her tailbone was exposed.
Nedder told jurors that a medical examiner would testify that Kimberlie had no food in her stomach or in her esophagus when an autopsy was done.
Scott Sullivan, 28, told police that Kimberlie was skinny, and he fed her four or five times a week, Nedder said.
Defense attorney Dan Cooper told jurors that Sullivan counted on his wife to care for the kids while he was working.
Scott Sullivan was exhausted, never at home and oblivious, Cooper said. “He never knew she needed medical attention,” Cooper said.
Sullivan was a caring and attentive father, but he was passive, inward and shy, Cooper said.
Terri Sullivan was mean and nasty toward her husband, and dominated and controlled the marriage, Cooper said.
When police asked Sullivan why he didn’t notice his daughter’s diminishing weight, he told them, “I guess I hadn’t looked at her that much lately,” Cooper said.
During testimony, jurors heard from a captain and paramedic with the Tucson Fire Department and a police officer and two detectives, who all responded to the Sullivans’ apartment.
Officer Jennifer Galaida told jurors that Kimberlie reminded her of concentration camp victim.
“She was so thin – her skin was sagging around her ankles,” Galaida told jurors
It’s really nice to see this “person” truly get what she deserves. Seems she was a bit smarter than her hubby Scott, who would like us all to believe he was just too busy with work to notice that his daughter was slowly wasting away.
Yeah Scott, good luck with that defense pal.
Terri and Scott Sullivan deserve to burn for what they did, and didn’t do, for their newborn daughter Kimberlie. The poor child died weighing less than her original birth weight.
Kimberlie never knew anything but pain and suffering during her all to brief lifetime. And in addition, she never, ever knew the love of her parents, who appear to have been the epitome of those selfish and self centered parents that end up getting written up around here on an all to frequent basis. Wherever she is now, I hope she knows how her death touched so many of us.
51 Comments »
Terri Sullivan is lucky. She won’t ever have to worry about where her next meal is coming from.
I was completely disgusted when I first read about this.
“I guess I hadn’t looked at her that much lately,”
Yeah,so you didn’t notice your daughter wasting away in front of your eyes. You were working,and it’s all your wife’s fault.You’re obviously not guilty…..
NOT!They both deserve to burn in hell.Slowly and painfully.
Stupid fucks.
25 to life is simply not enough for me. Not nearly enough. For atleat the nex 25 years she has 3 hots and a cot. She doesn’t have to worry about much. She doesn’t have to think about much of anything except hoping that she won’t get used as a sex toy that night. Hell after a while she’ll get to like it.
I want her to suffer long. I want her to scream till she passes out. I want her to bleed. I want her to know hunger and thurst. I want her to feel pain.
The baby girl was born a healthy weight, because the twat of a mother never forgot to feed her own fat face! I soooo believe in an eye for an eye. Put her in a cell and let her starve to death.
Although I agee 100% with your setiments but I can’t go along wiht putting the prison guards in to that situation. The press would tear the shit out of them and destroy thier lives completly.
I know….so sad. I can’t stand these bitches who chose to have children and then don’t do right by them. My youngest son was a surprise, a perfect example that condoms aren’t fool proof, but we already know that and it was my choice to take that chance, it’s hard being a single mom but I thank God every day. As a mother you sarcrafice anything for your kids and if you can’t then there’s so many loving couples out there wanting children, stop being selfish whore bags and give them up.
It took my brother and his wife 15 years to get their daughter. So many people would kill for a precious little bundle like this poor mite, would beg on their knees for the chance to take care of her, and this nasty stank ass cooz STARVES HER TO DEATH?? Excuse me?
Heart breaking.
Let me have her – there are plenty of abandone asylums, prisons. etc…. I could find a place to lock her away and the only living things that will hear her screams are the rats looking for her to be their next meal and the roaches who will devour what the rats have left behind.
I’d give her enough water to sustain her as thirst is a driving force. Letting her dehydrate in a few days would be too kind – severe suffering, but all too quickly over. The touture of thirst being worst than that of hunger, she’ll most likely choose to waste away slowly, maybe choosing thirst near the bitter end when pain is just pain no matter what the source.
Pnce in hell, paraphrasing The Bible – she’ll deal with “the thirst that is never quenched”
YEAH BABY!!! Fred for President! Ya got my vote! ;)
As long as you’ll be my “vice”…… :-)
I wish that there was some way to make these people experience what their victims went through without killing them, so that they could live with the memories for the rest of their lives.
She had three other kids. How did she pick this one to starve to death? Did she draw straws?
What a horrifying story, that poor baby, everyone failed her. How can these scumbags live with themselves and what they did? How? I hope they both get what’s coming to them in prison!
@ Chinchillazilla
I was thinking the same thing… I never understand child abuse/neglect cases in general, but it always mystifies me even further in situations like this (Nixzmary Brown, Nadine Lockwood), where the parents have other kids and seemingly single one particular child out for such horrific abuse… What could an innocent child POSSIBLY do to make themselves a target? I think it often has more to do with the specific paternity of these poor kids – as in, it’s quite possible that Terri had Kimberlie by another man, and Scott was punishing her for it…
In which case, what complete sh!tbombs these kids have for parents. The only relief that comes is in the notion that Kimberlie is no longer suffering, and Terri will very likely be sodomized with a foreign object by some big, burly man-bitch with cornrows who hasn’t been allowed to even see her kids in 9 years….
You know, it occurred to me that the poor mite, singled out as she was, is well out of such a life and away from such a mother. With all my heart I wish she could be alive and with a loving family, and how horrifying that she starved slowly to death, but at least this way she’s far, far away, in a place where this lowdown foul white trash will never, never, be. I’m trying to find comfort where I can.
ITA, E… That’s the only way we can really find a way to feel at ease when faced with sh!t like this (more specifically, these people)… I’ve heard over and over that starving to death and freezing to death are horrible, agonizing ways to die. And yet I’ve seen children murdered in both of these manners by the SOBs who fill the roster here. It hurts my soul (literally) to think about the last moments of some of the victims, including little Kimberlie. Telling myself that at least the suffering of a sweet little baby finally ended, and that they’re now in a place where these beasts can no longer hurt them, is the only way to keep from ending up in a fetal position, bawling my eyes out. And that’s the honest to god truth.
The mother diluted the baby’s formula with water so she could buy drugs without letting her husband “know”. The other three children were older and figured out ways to feed themselves. The oldest was in elementary school and could eat there and attempted to take care of his younger sisters the best way he could when their parents were not there (physically and mentally). The second part is my theory.
Maybe that baby was just tougher than the other ones.
Cries more, non stop, does not respond to yelling…..
Maybe spits up her food more – needs extra burping……
Maybe the 2 year old is just such a handful that the newest is just set aside and easily ignored.
There are plenty of reasons, they all suck and are not an excuse.
I’ve noticed that a lot of families with multiple children will end up having the designated scapegoat of the lot. Normally, this only amounts to one particular child being slightly more likely to be disciplined via the conventional means (getting sent to their room, a timeout, etc.) when they misbehave, but in cases of abuse, it’s taken to the extreme.
I can’t even begin to comprehend how someone ends up resenting their child — and a baby, at that — so much that they leave them to starve to death. It makes me sick, just thinking about what this poor little girl went through in her short life. She never got to know what it’s like to be loved… all she knew was pain and misery. Her parents are absolute monsters.
Two 1-way tickets to hell are needed…pronto.
I can never even wrap my head around things like this. It’s like the “mother” wakes up one morning and decides, “thats it, i’m not feeding them anymore.” She had how many other kids? Why did her infant not get fed? It’s obvious the defendant never missed a meal…
such a f*cking shame..
as for the hubby who was too busy. I would almost buy that if it wasn’t for the fact that his baby had bones popping out of her skin and I am sure she cried her head off to be fed. May they both burn…
Before I rant….f*cking hell! Check out the dead eyes and nasty demeanor on this ugly cow.
Why is this woman still allowed to keep her uterus? It took me 20 years to have my son when I was nearly 40. I was told I could never have children and then my miracle came along. I do not know if I could have another child, but my fiance and I would have gladly taken this little girl in and give her a loving home. And as a mother I know that baby cried and cried for food. There is no way they could not have noticed it unless they locked her in a room away from everyone else. This is so disgusting.
Torture in prison I could agree with. Life in prison is just a cushy ride for this bitch.
I see underweight babies in my clinic all the time. Their mother’s all think they are doing well. They say “She never cries and just sleeps all the time. She’s a happy baby.” This is because calorically deprived babies are in survival mode and being awake an crying all require the expenditure of calories. The baby probably died very quietly.
I’ll bet my bottom dollar that God has a plan – a damn good plan – probably the bestest motherfucking plan you ever heard of – because why else would He (God is a dude, trust me) let something like this happen?
It’s all part of his great big, cosmic plan to rule the universe.
God kicks ass.
Well, anything would be better than the Cylon plan…
Sometimes I wonder – maybe the Cylons are on to something.
‘Course, this God fella, I swear, he seems to be hell-bent on world domination.
Insane. How can you have a child, and starve him/her? That’s so inhuman. I feel terrible for that baby. I breastfed my children, because I didn’t want to give them formula. It was hard, but I managed- she could have given her a freakin bottle.
too hell for her.
She cut the formula with water to save money for drugs.
What do you do with these two lazy idiots? what punishment do you give them that could equal the torment that poor baby went through? I wish there was something worse than the death penalty for these two-hope there is a hell cause they deserve much worse than anything we can devise for them
No shit, it’s called breastfeeding. it’s free, y’all!
I did it collectively for five effin years. Why TF is it that the trailer trash isn’t doing it??????????
One of my friends breast fed her husband for over 13 years…..
Poor or improper breastfeeding could actually be the cause of this child’s death.
I’d loose my appitite if that face was connected to any pair of breasts… I’d even loose my appitite if someone like her was at my dinner table!
Started doing the happy dance…..then it trickled down st a minor shuffle…..25 years …like fmd it sucks bad!!!…I so hope my fav friend Karma gets to her while she’s in there that’s for sure.
Well, at least she’s getting a longer sentence than the average babykiller I’ve seen. It’ll continue this way as long as children are treated like they don’t count just because they can’t vote.
There is that
I just went grocery shopping and at he rate the prices are going up her life style may be better than ours!
This bitch will get 3 hots and a cot while decent people will be begging outside Grand Central Terminal for something to eat.
I hate to suggest that the lady that I fed a few weeks ago needs to kill a baby so that she can get three meals a day….
Tough economic times Fred, and I’ve still got 3 kids at home. Sometimes, as a parent, hard decisions have to be made.
But I do believe that you are not choosing which kid will starve today, but rather which bills to pay and when and which price yields the best value….
r.i.p baby Kimberlie
yet again another pair of worthless assholes are blessed with a child that they don’t deserve and don’t appreciate. There will never be a punishment on this earth that could even come close to making up for what these waste of space’s put this child through.
ok. This is being way oversimplified. There are too many unanswered questions. The mother is undeniably culpable in her child’s death, but where was the rest of the community? As a professional, my head is swimming with questions. Babies don’t starve to death overnight, and they don’t do so quietly. The doctor who examined this baby is responsible for the baby’s care for 30 days after discharge. This baby should have been seen by a pediatrician within 72 hours of hospital discharge to make sure she lost no more than 10% of her body weight, and at ten days to make sure she was back up to birth weight. She should have also had a 1 month or 6 week check up. No one has even bothered to ponder whether she was breast or bottle feeding. Also there are many more reasons for starvation than a mother willfully underfeeding her baby. I want the whole story!
Uh, unfortunately last time I check, there are no law mandated health checks for infants and if there was, we do not have the government resources to mandate such. Common sense is lacking here! You need a licence to drive a car but no such luck for this unfortunate child who lost the birth lottery in spades.
By the looks of them, they should have done a drug screen on the mother before releasing the child from the hospital. That is the only reason I can surmise for parents not to realize their six week old child is slipping away. The parents should be given 2x that 25 yr sentence and immediately be spayed and neutered. A mother crocodile has more nurturing insticts than this bitch!
She was a formula feeder. She said that Breastfeeding brought up too many bad memories.
FYI – The father was recently aquitted of first degree murder and only convicted of child abuse. Scott and Terri Sullivan are both responsible for the death of their daughter, whether they were in the home or not. There were three other children in the home that have been affected tremendously by their parents’ behaviors and will require YEARS of therapy. I hope the kids will get a chance to live a healthy and happy life and be able to process their little sister’s death. And I hope the grandparents who are adopting the children have the strength to keep their son from ever hurting them again.
ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THAT I AM TRULY HEART BROKEN!!!! AND THROUGHLY DISCUSSED!!!!!!!!! I HOPE THEY BOTH BURN IN HELL!!!!! May baby Kimberlie find peace now. RIP sweet one.
Terri deserves prison at the very least. However, I believe that she was having a lot of issues. Unfortunately, her father is also the father of her first born son through rape. She married Scott after just 3 weeks to get away from her Dad. She was not controlling, and did what she could to make her husband happy.
Scott is an ass. He always has been. I have NO DOUBT he did not know that Kimberlie was in trouble and needed medical attention. He only got 3 1/2 years! And his parents have the rest of the kids. I hope he never gets his hands on them.
She should NOT have starved that baby! Any one in our family would have gladly taken her, and loved her like our own. I spend a moment every day to her, wherever she is, and pray that she is happy in heaven. I also pray daily for my cousin Terri and hope that she realizes her grave error and is sorry for it. Though systematic rape throughout childhood is traumatic- it is no excuse to kill your baby.
Our family is really devastated by the loss of Kimberlie, and the fact that our own family member didn’t realize that she needed the help. She lived a whole state away from us, or someone would have stepped in had we known!
I hope that she repents and God has mercy upon her.
**Little edit** I have no doubt that Scott KNEW for a fact that Kimberlie needed help and did nothing about it.
And for some one you- for shame. Saying horrible things about her being on drugs etc. You point fingers and say these terrible things about her. You should keep in mind that Terri DOES have a family who are absolutely DEVASTATED by what she did- we don’t understand it. We Don’t know why she did it. And reading your hateful replies just rips our hearts out all over again.
You have a good point My Cousin – From what I could find out from the official documents that were released, there is absolutely NO evidence that drugs played a part in this crime, certainly not on the part of Terri Sullivan. I’m no friend of either “parent”, as anyone can easily see from my comments in the update, but I also believe in the truth. Piling on rumor and outright lies about Terri serves no one and just causes more suffering for her family – some people seem to forget that they are victims too.
You and your family sound like good, sensible human beings, unlike the majority of friends and family of perpetrators who post in their defense. Thank you for posting. That took strength.
I wish you and your family strength through this horrible nightmare. It is good to know the other children are safe. Be glad you have a family who can pull together and help each other through this.
Yes, Scott must have been an “ass”, because he was working two jobs and taking care of the kids while he was home- while Terri was doing meth, sleeping around with her dealer, and leaving the kids alone while she was doing these things. Yes, he must be an “ass”. And I believe Terri’s two brothers were in Arizona at the time of Kimberlie’s death.
I have such a hate for these people in me. I wish I could see the mommy, especially, for just a few minutes! I would not kill her just make her wish she were dead! Kimberlie is way better off now!