Baby Sterling Koehn was left in a corner to die. Why?
By: Madeline O'Brien
Tags: Murder, True Crime, Neglect, Abuse

The first responder, Toni Freidrich arrived to the apartment of Zachary Koehn and Cheyanne Harris on the afternoon of August 30th, 2017 in response to a 911 call placed by Zachary Koehn. Zachary appeared calm in the 911 call, telling the dispatcher he believed that sudden infant death was a possibility. He met Toni in the front yard of the apartment and led her to where the baby was, Little Sterling’s room was dark, warm and filled with an acrid stench of urine . Zachary turned on the light and quickly went to another part of the house. Toni looked around and noted that there wasn’t a crib. She did see however, a mechanical swing facing a wall in the corner of the room.

Zachary Koehn 27, the last name Koehn is pronounced Cane by some and Koehn by others, I’m going to pronounce is Koehn, and Cheyanne Harris 20, resided in Chickasaw county Iowa, in the town of Alta Vista, population of about 400 people. They lived in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with their 2 year old daughter Nala and 4 month old son, Sterling. Zachary and Cheyanne’s relationship was on again off again for two years. Their cycle was that they would take meth together, get clean then start the cycle all over again. It was during one of these cycles that Cheyanne discovered she was pregnant. Sterling Daniel Koehn was born on May 1st, 2017. His arrival was unconventional in that he was born in a bathtub while at a party at a friends house Cheyanne had gone into the restroom some time that night and was surprised when she realized she was in labor, She called out for help and the party goers placed her in the bath-tub. It is there that Cheyanne gave birth. Paramedics were called, and Cheyenne And he baby boy were transported to the hospital. Once at the hospital, their stay was short until they moved to a bigger hospital and stayed a few days. There was concern over Sterling’s health, it was thought that he may have water in his lungs. He was incubated for a day and released to go home. The day after they returned home, Sterling went to his first doctor visit, that visit would end up being his last.

Toni approached the swing that was facing the wall. In her mind, this was going to be a resuscitation situation due to the information that came in from the 911 call about sudden infant death syndrome. What appeared before her was something entirely different.

Sterling’s eyes were open, devoid of the spark of life and the innocence that only baby's possess. His tiny hands were clenched near his face, evidence of what his last days must've been like . The chair he sat in was wet and stained from the fluids that leaked from his body. Clothing and blankets were tucked around Sterling in the swing, presumably to keep him from moving around in the seat. Toni reached down to try and find a brachial pulse on Sterling, his tiny arm was stiff and cold. There were flies surrounding Sterling and maggots crawling around his little body. This obviously wasn’t sudden infant death syndrome. Sterling Daniel Koehn, was dead.

Zachary and Cheyanne were arrested and charged with first degree murder and child endangerment on October 25th, their cash bond was set at $100,000. Neither Zachary or Cheyanne had a serious criminal history, except a charge for theft of services on Zachary.

The two were tried separately, with Zachary’s first day of trial starting on October 18th and lasting until November 6th. The two trials were virtually identical so I will cover Zachary’s and mention the highlights of Cheyanne’s.

The defense attorney, Les Blair’s opening statement was brief, less than 3 minutes. It was clear that this was going to be an uphill battle for this defense team. Toni Freidrich, the first responder, struggled with her testimony. She was very affected emotionally by what she witnessed that fateful day Skipping to day three of the trial, Dr. Dennis Klein, who is a pathologist, testified regarding Sterling’s cause of death, the break down of his body due to malnutrition and the discomfort he must have felt from hunger. During the latter part of Dr. Klein’s testimony when photos were being shown to the court, Zachary lowered his head and covered his eyes. Dr. Klein was unable to pinpoint the exact time of death which brings us to the next witness, Dr. Timothy Huntington. Dr. Huntington is one of fifteen board certified forensic entomologists, and is a forensic entomology consultant for several law enforcement agencies. He is a unassuming looking man, but very accomplished and is very impressive on the witness stand. He went into detail regarding the life cycle of a fly as well as the habits of the fly in finding a suitable place to lay its eggs. His testimony is rather long as he goes into the whole process of how he came to his conclusions regarding this case. The prosecutor summarized in his opening statement what this defendant testified to. Zachary’s father testified that they adopted Zachary when he was 2, and have custody of another child of Zachary’s. On day four, Zachary took the stand. The point the defense was trying to drive home to the court was that Zachary and Cheyanne were struggling for money so much that Zachary resorted to desperate measures to buy food, household supplies and formula. How this could have helped his defense, I’m not entirely sure. Like I stated earlier, this would be a very difficult case to defend. Closing arguments were made on November 6, 2018 and the jury came back with a guilty verdict on all charges after two hours of deliberation.

Cheyanne Harris’s trial started on January 30th, 2019. It was virtually identical to Zachary’s, she did not testify on her own behalf however. Her trial ended on February 6th, 2019 with a guilty verdict on all charges. The jury deliberated just under six hours.

Both Zachary and Cheyanne were sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole.

Epilogue: The city of Alta Vista held a candlelit vigil in honor of Sterling, Cheyanne is having difficulty in prison with other inmates due to the nature of her crimes. Both Zachary and Cheyanne were denied the motion for new trials.

Photo courtesy of The Courier