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    UPDATE 2: Terri Sullivan and Scott Sullivan

    TUCSON MAN ACQUITTED OF 1ST DEGREE MURDER IN STARVING DEATH OF NEWBORN
    excerpts of an article by Kim Smith – The Arizona Daily Star

    A Tucson man accused of starving his newborn baby to death was acquitted of first-degree murder Thursday and was convicted of reckless child abuse, a probation-eligible offense.

    Scott Sullivan’s daughter, Kimberlie, was born on July 14, 2008, weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces and died Aug. 30, 2008, weighing 5 pounds, 7 ounces.

    Her mother, Terri Sullivan, 27, pleaded guilty to child abuse and first-degree murder and is now serving a life sentence with parole possible after 25 years.

    The jury found that Sullivan’s wife was responsible for the child’s death.

    Defense attorney Dan Cooper said he told jurors the evidence showed Scott Sullivan, 28, was oblivious to Kimberlie’s declining health because he was rarely home and when he was, he was exhausted.

    Scott Sullivan was working two jobs much of the summer of 2008 and often had to walk 20 miles roundtrip to work because his vehicle was broken down, Cooper said.

    Scott Sullivan counted on his wife to care for the baby and their three other children while he was working, Cooper said.

    His client’s family testified Scott Sullivan was a shy, reserved man who was married to a bossy, domineering and forceful woman, Cooper said.

    Terri Sullivan told a probation officer she was having an affair with an 18-year-old man that summer and smoking marijuana daily, court documents indicate.

    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 couple’s three other children now live with Scott Sullivan’s parents.

    I’m not sure what to make of this verdict. At first I was understandably outraged that Scott Sullivan apparently got away with murder. I just could wrap my mind around a father not noticing that his newborn baby was wasting away.

    But information I found out in this article an others have softened my position on Scott. Many facts came out in court, both during Scott’s trial and during Terri’s guilty plea, that were not available before.

    Scott was a shy, reserved man who had married a domineering woman who made all the decisions about the family, including child rearing. He was working two full time jobs, and honestly didn’t see much of his little daughter. Whenever he did question his wife about Kimberlie’s appearance, his wife always told him everything was fine.

    Plus Scott was hoofing it the whole time that Kimberlie was “alive”, walking 20 miles roundtrip to work because his POS automobile wasn’t running.

    Terr Sullivan was also apparently having an affair with a much younger man. That could explain much of the neglect of baby Kimberlie. A newborn takes up most of a mother’s time. If there was a demand for her attention from a second source, like a lover, something had to give.

    Anyway, I guess in this case I’m going to have to accept that the jury may have known better than I did (Shhh, don’t let it get around, or my reputation as an opinionated jerk will really suffer). There are times when I have to give a certain situation to fate and move on.

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    Filed under Updates | . Written on March 8th, 2010 by Max The Cat


    16 Comments »

    Similar Posts:

    16 Responses to “UPDATE 2: Terri Sullivan and Scott Sullivan”

    1. MurryPrincess says:
      March 8, 2010 at 8:19 pm

      Well, I guess that could have been worss, or better, it’s kind of a hard one to decide about.

      Reply
    2. Miwist says:
      March 8, 2010 at 8:41 pm

      Working, 20 mile walk – yeah, that’s tough and I can understand his exhaustion, but the kid didn’t just suddenly starve. I can, to a degree, sympathize – but this took some time to happen. How blissfully unaware can he be?

      Neglect resulting in death? Send him to prison.

      Reply
      • Lynn says:
        March 11, 2010 at 9:15 pm

        I’ve had a newborn drop over a pound of weight
        ( from almost 7 pounds to 5 1/2 during a week long hospital stay), and there was no difference in her appearance, that I could see. I can totally see how this man did not notice a difference in her appearance.

        Reply
    3. Steph-Ann says:
      March 8, 2010 at 10:15 pm

      He’s guilty of being stupid…and spineless, but anybody who’d walk 20 miles daily to work, trying to support his four children and a bitch ass peice of shit hooker clearly has heart. If he didn’t want his kids to eat, he wouldn’t have bothered putting forth that kind of effort. He made the money and bought food for his baby, the skeezer just didn’t give it to her.

      Reply
      • Mulch says:
        March 9, 2010 at 12:43 am

        What she said

        Reply
      • Miwist says:
        March 9, 2010 at 5:28 am

        I agree – spineless and stupid. I’m sure that he thought he was doing the right thing, but to ignore his family long enough for a kid to starve to death? To not do anything while the kid starves. Starving to death takes a little bit of time – he had to have known.

        His lawyer played the sympathy card well.

        Reply
      • Fred says:
        March 9, 2010 at 9:51 am

        I agree with you,
        Also I agree with the verdict, given my first marriage, I would agree that such is possible.
        I would add to the condition of his release tha he be neutered as he is not fit to be a father. If any of my children were so abused, the child would get medical care, the bitch – corinor care!

        Reply
    4. Deedeebug95 says:
      March 9, 2010 at 12:33 am

      Max, you an opinionated jerk, who said that? no way….seriously I agree with you. A part of me still wants to hang him high, but it sounds as though he really was trying hard to do right by his family. I do agree with Step-Ann he was spineless, he should have taken one day off gotten a ride or the bus to a pediatrician. When in doubt……ask your Mother. Were where the rest of the family? The grandparents, if my Mother had been that child’s Grandmother she would have hit the roof!

      Reply
    5. Lantern says:
      March 9, 2010 at 12:41 am

      I think if you cannot be negative to scott it is best to be neutral.

      Because anything other than neutrality should be the grain of salt given to what a defense attorney has to say about a client.

      Reply
    6. Harley Quinn says:
      March 9, 2010 at 10:04 am

      I feel for the guy. I’ve been with bossy domineering people, and I’m not an easy one to shut up but they can be effectively silencing. Especially when you’re just exhausted. I mean the guy just looks haggard. I know back when I was on hard times, walking 2 miles to work an 8 hour shift on my feet then walking 2 miles home wore me out. It was time consuming as well.

      I’m willing to believe the guy was just never there. Assuming he worked an 8 hour shift, and had to walk 20 miles on top of his work day – let’s say he walks the average pace of 2 mph (I don’t know if I should say he walked faster because he was walking with a purpose, or slower because he was just drained.) That would be 10 hours tacked on to his work day. The man was probably too tired to feed himself let alone his baby. I can see how easy it would be to let the care fall on the mother – and not knowing what said mother is doing all day when you’re gone 18 hours.

      I stilll just can’t believe he never looked in on his little girl even for a bleary eyed second and didn’t know something wasn’t right. Was he too tired? Too dumb? Did he try to say something but found he didn’t have the energy or smarts to argue with Terri? I would imagine the alarm of seeing your child in such a state would give you enough of an adrenaline rush to say something, or CALL someone. He had a responsibility to his little girl and he failed her. Maybe knowing that is punishment enough, I don’t know. I know that if Scott Sullivan is living the way he says he is, he’s probably already miserable. This wont help. If he has a heart at all he will probably die of a broken one.

      Reply
    7. Jess says:
      March 9, 2010 at 4:38 pm

      If he was working and making money to feed his family,maybe he isn’t as bad as I thought.But to not notice your daughter practically wasting away? Not sure what to believe. My mind’s unchangeable about Terri,though- she’s a bad mother and stupid as fuck.

      Reply
    8. ApriL says:
      March 10, 2010 at 9:32 pm

      you know I give him the benefit of the doubt, because my husband works damn hard, and it basically is my job to feed my children. He also doesn’t know anything except maybe their birthdays and favorite shows lol, if you asked him how much our 21 month old weighed, he’d probably guess, a whack number. I am sure he has no idea how much any of our children weigh, even if I’ve told him every appt. A little baby might be harder to tell a couple of pounds, especially if she lied and said she’s fine. I know BOTH of my girls were under their “weight” curve, just slightly- and my son was above lol. My oldest daughter is now 4 lbs under what her weight is “supposed to be”, but my doc says she is ok, just petite and always has been. I am sure he blames himself, and will have to live with it for the rest of his life. I hope she rots in hell.

      Reply
    9. Karen_Cupcake says:
      March 11, 2010 at 5:09 pm

      As much as I would like to wish the worst for this guy, I cannot help thinking that I have seen many parents who were clueless/spineless/overexhausted/all of the above, or had untreated mental health issues. The majority of these people were not aware that they were not caring properly for their children; or they kind of were, but amidst all of their problems and turmoil, they didn’t react. Dunno. I feel really sorry for him and I agree with Harley Quinn and ApriL, being aware of what he let happen will be his punishment.

      Reply
    10. V.XIII says:
      March 11, 2010 at 9:25 pm

      he was found trying to give the baby CPR… in my opinion, he was probobly abused by this bitch too… I didnt hear about this before, this is my first time reading about it, maybe we wont see scott in hell but I bet he is there on his self damnation…

      Reply
    11. Bill Baker says:
      March 24, 2010 at 8:59 am

      I will starve before my son does. But I know his mother would never let this happen, even that we are not together that boy is her life.

      Reply

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