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Tiffany Woods should one day look at the autopsy pictures of her starved baby, a Caddo District Court judge said this afternoon as she found Woods and her boyfriend guilty of letting their baby starve to death.
The child's mother and father, who were Hurricane Katrina evacuees, had money for beer and cigarettes but not money to properly feed their child, the judge added.
Judge Jeanette Garrett, who decided the case in lieu of a jury, found Woods and Emmanuel Scott guilty of second-degree murder in the death of their 5-month-old baby.
Woods, 28, and Scott, 21, face mandatory life prison sentences without parole.
Neither expressed any noticeable reaction as the judge announced her verdict and told of the impact that photos of the dead baby had on her.
"I thought I had seen everything until I saw these photos," Garrett said. "The only way I can describe these pictures is absolutely haunting."
The couple's baby, Emmanuel, died in November 2005 at a house on Ralph Place in Shreveport. An autopsy determined the baby, who weighed six pounds, died of severe malnutrition and dehydration. Prosecutors said he weighed half of what a child that age should weigh.
Woods and Scott both denied intentionally causing their baby to die. Woods told police her son had been sick but she did not know he was starving.
The couple said they switched him from infant formula to regular milk because he took it better.
"Their decision to go off formula was more than a poor choice," Garrett said. "...They had money for beer and cigarettes, so they had money for formula."
Defense attorney Eddie Mouton said the baby, who was born premature, was not getting better but his parents did not believe he was getting worse, either. He said the couple "did everything they could to get their baby to grow and thrive."
The baby was born premature in New Orleans and was released from the hospital before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. The parents arrived in Shreveport the day before Katrina devastated New Orleans. The baby died three months later.
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