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James Sergent _ Tracy Hermann _ The Death of Baby Benjamin · This is monsters

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Five-month-old Benjamin hadn't been fed in four days. His diaper
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: hadn't been changed in five. The last time he was
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: given a bath had been more than a week prior.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: When officers responded to a 911 call about a baby
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: who was not breathing, they arrived within five minutes, but
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: it was too late to save him. This is Monsters.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you. It was 2.54 p.m. on February 12, 2008,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: when a 911 call was made in central Illinois. The
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: caller was distressed, making it clear that they needed urgent
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: help for a baby boy who had stopped breathing. Emergency
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: responders knew that the well-being of a child was at stake,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: so the first car was sent immediately to the scene
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: on Proctor Street in Peoria County. The paramedics arrived at 2.59 p.m.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: After both the fire department and paramedics arrived on scene,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: police officers from the local station were also dispatched because
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: one of the paramedics had let the station know that
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: they believed it might have been a case of shaken
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: baby syndrome. Immediately after walking through the door, one thing
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: was painfully obvious to the officers. The house had a terrible,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: putrid smell, made even worse by the fact that the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: inside of the house was kept at a very warm
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: 78 degrees Fahrenheit or 25 degrees Celsius. The officers walked
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: inside to find James Sargent, the father of the baby,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: wrapped in a blanket on the living room couch. He
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was curled up in the fetal position, hugging his knees
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to his chest, and he was sobbing. The officers moved
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: past James and toward one of the bedrooms, struggling to
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: walk because of the random debris and rubbish that covered
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the floor. A medic who had been on the scene
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: for less than 20 minutes warned the officers that the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: baby was inside the room, but he was already dead.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: They had already notified a police sergeant over the phone,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: informing them that the child had been dead for some time.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: When the officers entered the baby's bedroom, it became clear
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: why no efforts were being taken to revive him. On
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the wall above the crib, there was a carved wooden
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: decoration spelling out the name Benjamin. Underneath it, in the crib,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: was the body of baby Benjamin. Despite being inside a crib,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: he was fully dressed in a snowsuit that covered almost
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: his entire body, and someone had strapped him tightly into
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: a child's car seat. Benjamin's eyes were open, and he
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: was so dehydrated that his eye sockets had a sunken appearance.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: At some point, tears, mucus, and saliva had been leaking
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: out of his eyes and mouth, but so much time
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: had passed since his death that the foam had dried
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: into a crust on his pale skin. Underneath the car seat,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: detectives could see a pool of urine that had leaked
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: from Benjamin's snowsuit and into the mattress of the crib.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: It was clear to all of the first responders on
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the scene that Benjamin was past saving. He'd been dead
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: for at least a day, possibly even longer. Rigor mortis
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: had already set in, leaving Benjamin frozen in a position
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: with his left hand up in the air and his
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: little fingers squeezed into a fist. Later, police would find
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: out that Benjamin had been starving. In fact, he hadn't
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: been given any formula for at least four days. This
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: made one of the details of the crime scene much crueler.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Next to Benjamin in the car seat lay a half-empty
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: bottle of baby formula. He was too young to pick
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: up the bottle and feed himself, but the people who
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: were supposed to be caring for him never took the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: time to do it. After photographs were taken of Benjamin's
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: body and surroundings, a county coroner arrived at the crime
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: scene to take custody of Benjamin's body. She also removed
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the car seat, the half-empty baby bottle, and the clothing
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: he was wearing from the scene. While removing Benjamin from
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the house, no signs of trauma were clearly visible, however,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the coroner decided against removing Benjamin's snowsuit at the crime scene,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: so most of his body remained covered. Investigators moved on
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: to taking photos of the rest of the house. They
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: had to turn the thermostat down to try to control
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the smell, which only helped slightly. Although the rush to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: try to save Benjamin, and then deal with the horror
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: of the state they had found the deceased baby in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: had been their main focus, it was impossible not to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: notice the state of disarray that the Proctor Street house
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: was in. Multiple detectives who attended the scene described it as, quote-unquote, filthy.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: The sink was piled high with dirty dishes, and pieces
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of garbage were scattered around the kitchen and living room.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: There were signs that somebody had been living in the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: house's garage. Multiple doors had been damaged. It was a
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: completely unsuitable environment for raising a child, and the contents
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: of the refrigerator and kitchen cupboards made that even more clear.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Detectives searched the house for any signs that Benjamin had
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: been taken care of. There were very few baby food
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: items to be found. As well as the bottle that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: had been next to his body, there were two empty
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: cans of baby formula, one jar of banana baby food,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and a half-empty box of baby cereal. It wasn't enough
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: to feed a five-month-old for the rest of the day,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: let alone any longer period of time. One of the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: officers went to speak to James Sargent, who was still
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: on the couch rocking back and forth, muttering under his
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: breath and crying. He asked how Benjamin was doing and
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: was informed that his son was dead. James responded that
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: he had fed Benjamin earlier that day and thought he
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: was okay. Every single first responder on the scene was
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: aware that he was lying. Investigators had another priority, trying
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to locate Benjamin's mother, Tracy Herman. James told them that
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: he didn't know where Tracy was because she had left
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the house the previous night to stay with an acquaintance.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Before investigators could ask any other questions, James received a
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: call on his cell phone. It was Tracy. He excused
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: himself to talk to her in another room, and at
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: one point was overheard telling Tracy, quote, I haven't said
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: anything to them, although it wasn't clear what he was
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: talking about. One of the officers told James that they
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: needed to speak with Tracy, and James passed over the phone.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Tracy asked if anything was wrong with Benjamin, but investigators
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: didn't want to reveal any details over the phone, asking
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: her to return to the house so they could speak
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: to her in person. Tracy initially said that she wouldn't
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: be able to come home for several hours because she
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: had left her car in a different location and had
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: been unable to drive it due to the weather. The
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: officer insisted that it was important they speak to her
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: as soon as possible and suggested that another officer would
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: be able to give Tracy a ride back to the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Proctor Street house. Tracy deflected the offer by saying that
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: she didn't know what address she was at. Sure... With
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: no other options, investigators backed down and agreed that they
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: would see Tracy when she returned home in three hours' time.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: After the call ended, James seemed to become self-conscious for
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a moment and apologized to the officers for the filthy
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: state of his home, telling them, quote, James then asked
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: what had happened to Benjamin. One of the officers responded
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: by saying, quote, They sat down on the couch together
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and the officer noticed that James had several cuts on
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: his left arm that had possibly been self-inflicted. James was
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: asked to come to the police station for more in-depth questioning,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: which he quietly agreed to. James arrived at the Peoria
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: police station at around 3.45 p.m. At the time of
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the first interview he had with the police, investigators were
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: still wondering if Benjamin's death had been a case of
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: shaken baby syndrome, which would mean that it was murder
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: instead of neglect. Part of the motive behind questioning James
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: was to figure out if he had shaken or physically
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: harmed Benjamin, then panicked and called the police to cover
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: his tracks. After Tracy finally returned to the scene, she
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: was also brought into the station for questioning. Tracy confirmed
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: James' version of events, telling detectives that she had been
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: away from the house the previous evening after she and
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: James had gotten into an argument. She painted a hugely
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: dysfunctional picture of her relationship with Benjamin's father. Frequent fighting,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: James being prone to lashing out in episodes of anger,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and his refusal to clean the house or take care
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: of Benjamin. According to Tracy, Benjamin had still been alive
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: when she left the house the previous evening. Although detectives
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: were sure that Benjamin had been confined to the car
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: seat for a very long period of time, Tracy informed
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: them that she believed he had napped in it for
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: a shorter period of time, only about three hours. When
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: she was asked if she had changed Benjamin's diaper or
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: clothes before leaving, Tracy responded that she didn't think Benjamin's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: diaper had been dirty. Just like James, Tracy insisted that
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: she had recently fed Benjamin. She gave detectives a possible explanation.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: for the half-empty bottle that was found in the crib
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: next to him, telling them that before she had left
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the house, she filled the bottle for him and propped
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: it up using a folded blanket so he could drink.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Detectives asked if she was sure that Benjamin actually drank
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: from the bottle, and Tracy responded that she knew he
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: had grabbed it, but he didn't turn his head for
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: her to see him drinking. The detectives, trying to catch
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Tracy in a lie, asked her about what type of
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: formula she typically fed to Benjamin. She responded that both
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: she and James fed Benjamin with Similac, a type of
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: iron-fortified baby formula, but investigators had already searched the house
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: for baby formula and knew that there was no Similac
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: in the house at the time. A detective asked Tracy
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: if she had noticed any signs that Benjamin was unwell
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the last time she saw him. She thought for a
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: moment and then responded that she might have noticed his
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: throat sounded raspy the previous night. However, the rasp had
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: vanished the next day, so she didn't think it was
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: anything serious. The questions kept coming. It was unusual for
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: a baby to still be strapped into a car seat
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: while in his crib. Did Benjamin usually spend a lot
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: of time in his car seat? Yes, he did. Did
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: anybody ever take him out of the car seat and
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: hold him or play with him? Sometimes, but not very often.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: When was the last time she had changed Benjamin's diaper?
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Months ago. Who usually changed it? James had taken over
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: diaper-changing duties months ago, and usually, when Tracy got home
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: from work, she would leave James to take care of
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Benjamin and would go straight to bed. What the investigators
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: learned was that Tracy basically did nothing to take care
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: of her infant son and left that all to James,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: who she had also complained didn't take care of the baby.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Seems like there was a gaping hole in that method
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: of child care. Then, the detective asked if Benjamin was
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: fed and changed on some kind of normal schedule. At
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: around this point in the interrogation, it seemed as if
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Tracy started to break. She told investigators that she didn't
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: think Benjamin had a schedule, but admitted that she didn't
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: spend enough time in the Proctor Street house to know
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: for sure. From what she could remember, he would usually
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: sleep through the night, from 9pm until 8am. That was
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: a very unusual schedule for a five-month-old baby to follow.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: It was practically impossible. So, who got up and took
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: care of Benjamin if he woke up during the night?
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Tracy answered that she believed James did, but she didn't
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: know for sure. According to Tracy, Benjamin didn't cry much. Usually,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: he only cried when he was hungry. Throughout the interrogation,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Tracy continued to insist that Benjamin had been completely healthy
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: when she left the house the previous night. She revealed that,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in the past, she'd made an effort to keep track
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: of how much he was eating, but recently, she'd been
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: too busy with work to be able to keep up
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: with it. Several times, she repeated, quote, all I ever
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: do is work. She told investigators that she had always
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: been aware that the filthy house wasn't the right environment
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: to raise Benjamin in, to the point where she had
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: considered putting him up for adoption. But none of her
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: family members had been willing to take him in. And
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: with her being so busy at work, she hadn't had
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the time to make any further arrangements. From what Tracy
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: revealed in her interview, it seemed as if her relationship
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: with James was incredibly rocky. She described James as doing
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: nothing except for playing video games and eating all of
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the food in the house, refusing to do chores or
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: help take care of Benjamin. Again, she said that while
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: also saying he was the baby's primary caretaker, not seeming
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: to see the problem with that. In her point of view,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the condition of the house had never been great, but
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: it had gotten worse and worse over the past few months.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Despite James being irresponsible and unclean, Tracy said repeatedly that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: she had never observed James being cruel or physically abusive
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to Benjamin. When she was asked if she believed that
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Benjamin was neglected, she replied that yes, she did believe that. However,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: when she was asked if she believed Benjamin had been abused,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: she replied no. In Tracy's interviews, one of the things
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: she repeatedly mentioned was her job at the restaurant TGI
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Fridays and how she was so busy with work. Two
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: detectives went to Tracy's workplace to speak to the manager,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: who told them that Tracy had worked there as a
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: hostess for around a year and a half. Checking Tracy's
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: work record for the night of Benjamin's death backed up
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: what she had initially told police. She had called in
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and let her boss know that her car had been
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: iced in and she wouldn't be able to work her shift.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Despite Tracy's long-term employment at TGI Fridays, her manager disagreed
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: with her statements that she was always at work. She'd
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: never worked more than 40 hours per week in the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: entire time she'd been there. Usually, she only worked around
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: 30 hours in a week, giving her plenty of time
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: to care for Benjamin. In fact, the amount that Tracy
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: worked had recently decreased. She'd become more and more unreliable
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: over the past two or three months, calling in sick
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: or showing up late. It had gotten so bad that
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: they were considering firing her. Benjamin's autopsy was carried out
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: by Dr. Scott Denton on February 14, 2008, two days
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: after his body was discovered. He was 24 inches long
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: and weighed only 10 pounds. His body showed no clear
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: signs that he had been physically abused. His skin was
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: unmarked and there were no fractures to his bones. Although
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: it was clear to Dr. Denton from the examination that
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Benjamin had been severely neglected, he wasn't able to immediately
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: make a conclusion about the cause of the baby's death.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Investigators met with Benjamin's pediatrician, Dr. Gene Harris. They told Dr.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Harris that at his time of death, Benjamin had weighed
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: only 10 pounds. At his birth, he had weighed 8 pounds,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: which was an average weight for a newborn baby. Normally,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: babies continually put on weight each month after their birth,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: steadily tracking upwards. Benjamin had no known health issues that
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: would explain his drastic weight loss or failure to gain weight. Dr.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Harris was visibly shocked by the information, saying, quote, There
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: is something seriously wrong. Something bad happened. She showed investigators
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: a chart with a reference range for infant weights, showing
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: investigators that, by six months, Benjamin should have weighed at
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: least 17 pounds. Dr. Harris was right. Something had gone
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: seriously wrong. But it hadn't been a sudden event. It
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: had been a slow landslide of worsening neglect that eventually
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: took Benjamin's life. When Benjamin's cause of death was officially determined,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: it was gut-wrenching news. Benjamin had been dropped off at
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: James and Tracy's house on February 4th, strapped safely into
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: his car seat. It was very likely that he had
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: not been removed from the car seat at all during
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the following eight days, and he died trapped in the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: same position, unable to free himself. Because his diaper was
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: left soiled for so long, bacteria and infection had eaten
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: away at the skin and soft tissue around his genitals,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: upper thighs, and lower belly. His body wasn't able to
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: fight off the infection. He was weak from starvation and
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: dehydration and sealed inside a warm snowsuit in a house
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: where the thermostat was running high. In the car seat,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: he couldn't even roll over to take the pressure off
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: of the infected areas. His cause of death, without argument,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: had been neglect. It didn't matter that his parents didn't
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: seem to have beaten or shaken him. They had killed
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: him all the same. In the time leading up to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: their trials, both Tracy and James were held without bond.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: For their willful neglect of Benjamin, both parents faced a
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: severe sentence, charges of first-degree murder. Tracy's other daughter, who
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: was older than Benjamin, had been removed from her care
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: for her own safety. Tracy chose not to risk a trial.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: In interviews and interrogations, she'd always seemed a little more
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: remorseful or ashamed of her actions than James'. She had
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: made the decision that she would plead guilty to first-degree
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: murder so that Benjamin, who had lived a short and
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: neglected life, could have at least a little bit of justice.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: At the hearing, Tracy faced a small number of onlookers
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: and gave a verbal apology. She described the decisions she
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: had made, leading to Benjamin's death as being, quote-unquote, a mistake.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Tracy Herman was sentenced to 50 years in prison, of
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: which she's required to serve 100%. If she's ever freed
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: from incarceration, she'll be in her 70s. The evidence and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: testimonies made it very clear that James Sargent had been
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the primary caregiver for Benjamin, and therefore, the seriousness of
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the neglect was attributed more to him than it was
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to Tracy. Whether it was reasonable or not, Tracy had
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: delegated the duties of changing and feeding the baby to James,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and he had failed to uphold his end of the bargain.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: During the time that Benjamin had been trapped in a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: car seat without food or help, James had been in
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the house, eating, playing video games, drinking, and bathing. He'd
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: deprived Benjamin of these very same things, knowing that he
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: was the only one around to care for him. Peoria
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: County State Attorney Kevin Lyons described Benjamin's life and death as, quote,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the worst case of child neglect we've seen since the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: turn of this century. Despite this, the court acknowledging that
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: James had mental health issues, including a dissociation disorder where
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: he pretended that he was a character in The Lord
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: of the Rings, he received the maximum possible sentence that
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the court could give him. Found guilty of murder in
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the first degree, he was sentenced to 100 years behind bars.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: If Benjamin had somehow survived his childhood, he would be
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: a teenager today, attending school, making friends, and becoming his
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: own person, despite the fact that he was raised by
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: two negligent parents who were barely out of their teenage
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: years themselves. Instead, his life was short and there was
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: no happy ending. At least, like his mother Tracy said,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the fact that both of his parents will spend the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: rest of their lives behind bars gives baby Benjamin a
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: small amount of justice. Instead of justice, though, it would
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: have been nice if his monster parents would have treated
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: him like a human instead of a hindrance. If you're
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: for help. Please talk to your local shelter or call
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. Or
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: you can go to thehotline.org to chat with someone online.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: This website is set up so that, at any time,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: hitting the escape key twice will take you to a
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Google search page. That way, if your abuser is nearby,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: you won't get caught seeking help. If you're having feelings
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: of harming yourself or someone else, or even just need
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: someone to talk to, please contact your local mental health facility.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Call 911 or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: simply dialing 988 in the United States. They're available 24
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: hours a day, 7 days a week, and will talk
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to you about any mental health issue you may be facing.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: If you are a member of the LGBTQ plus community
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: and suffering from discrimination, depression, or are in need of
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: any support, please contact the LGBT National Hotline at 1-888-843-4564
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: or go to lgbthotline.org. Thanks again, and be safe.