Opinion ID: 2525436
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: breanna's death

Text: ¶ 13 On February 21, defendant took her two older children grocery shopping in the afternoon, while Travis and Breanna stayed at the apartment. At the store, defendant became angry with her two children and loudly verbally abused them for twenty minutes in front of Shannell Jeffrey Bird, a cashier. Bird heard defendant yell at the children saying she was going to be arrested in the store for child abuse because she was going to f  ing kill them. ¶ 14 That night, at the apartment, defendant and Travis gave Breanna medicine for her cold at about 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. Having put the children to bed, defendant and Travis left them alone and went next door to play video games. Defendant returned to the apartment sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. to check on Breanna. Shortly after midnight, Travis went back to check on the children and found that Breanna was not breathing. Travis immediately retrieved defendant from next door. Defendant called emergency services while Travis attempted to perform CPR. ¶ 15 Deputy Sheriff Brett Nielsen arrived at the apartment at approximately 12:20 a.m. on February 22. He immediately noted several bruises on Breanna's forehead and a red mark under her chin. He checked for a pulse, but found none. The baby's body was cold and hard, her chest rigid. Breanna was transported to the hospital where doctors determined, based on the state of rigor mortis and lividity patterns, that Breanna had been dead for approximately two hours before she arrived at the hospital. ¶ 16 Later that morning, at about 2:00 a.m., a DCFS caseworker arrived at defendant's apartment to take J.W. and C.W. into protective custody. Defendant became upset and said she would kill herself if the other children were removed. She became hysterical, saying, You think I f  ing beat my baby, then f  ing strangled her and I went to the bathroom and f  ing played with myself and had a f  ing orgasm. Defendant then threatened, If you take my other kids, there will be another murder here. At that point, no one had suggested that Breanna had been murdered.