Thedford v. State
| Decision Date | 28 August 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-18-00884-CR,05-18-00884-CR |
| Parties | MICHAEL SHANNON THEDFORD, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
On Appeal from the 296th Judicial District Court Collin County, Texas
Before Justices Partida-Kipness, Nowell, and Evans
Opinion by Justice Partida-Kipness
On June 21, 2016, Michael Thedford dropped his two oldest children off at daycare and drove home with his six-month-old daughter, Fern, who had been sick with a fever and was staying home that day. Sadly, Michael forgot Fern was still in the vehicle and left her in the back seat. When he arrived home, he went inside and fell asleep. Michael woke up four hours later and found Fern in the vehicle. Tragically, Fern died of hyperthermia. The sole issue before us is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury's guilty verdict for criminally negligent homicide. We reverse the conviction and render a judgment of acquittal.
When this tragedy occurred, Jennifer and Michael Thedford were married and had three children together. Jennifer was a veterinarian, and Michael was a high school physics teacher. The Thedfords' oldest child was five years old and had recently finished kindergarten, their second child was three years old, and their youngest child, Fern, was six months old. The two youngest children attended daycare at MudPies and Lullabies, a daycare and preschool near the Thedfords' home, and the oldest child was attending the preschool during summer vacation.
On June 21, 2016, Michael was on summer vacation from his teaching job and was responsible for taking the children to school. Michael's three-year-old daughter woke him up at 7:30 a.m. Michael had the children ready to go to school by 8:15 a.m., put them into the family minivan, and made the short trip to the school. Because Fern had been sick with a fever, he intended to drop the two oldest children at school and bring Fern home with him for the day. The school has two buildings. Fern and her older sister were in the building that housed the infant through three-year-old classes. When he arrived at school, Michael parked the car, walked his older daughter into the school, and took her to her classroom. His son and Fern remained in the minivan. Next, he drove to the other building and walked his son inside. Fern remained in the minivan. While inside, Michael logged into the school's check-in system, checked in the two older children, and clicked on Fern's picture to indicateshe was not being checked in to school that day. Michael then left the building, returned to the minivan, and drove away.
Michael drove straight home after dropping the children off at school, and the drive took only a few minutes. When he arrived home, he exited the minivan, went inside, got in bed, and fell asleep. Michael told investigators that he fell asleep at about 9:00 a.m. and woke up at 1:00 p.m. His wife, Jennifer, called him after he woke up. He was talking with Jennifer and walking to the living room when he saw the minivan out of the corner of his eye through the front door and he realized Fern was not in the house. He panicked and ran outside to the minivan. He found Fern in the minivan still sitting in her car seat. One side of her face was discolored, and she was very hot. Cell phone records show that Jennifer called Michael at 1:25 p.m. Jennifer told a sheriff's office investigator that while she was on the phone with Michael, he screamed and told her that Fern was cold, not breathing, and was dead. Jennifer told Michael to call 9-1-1, which he did within two minutes of getting Jennifer's call. Before calling 9-1-1, however, Michael carried Fern into the house. He placed Fern in the refrigerator with the door open where he could still see her as he called 9-1-1. He removed her from the refrigerator and placed her on the floor when the 9-1-1 dispatcher gave him instructions on how to administer CPR to Fern.
Michael told the 9-1-1 dispatcher that he had woken up from a nap and found his infant daughter dead in her bassinet. He described Fern as "burning hot to the touch" and told the dispatcher Fern had a fever that morning. When he wastransferred to the American Medical Response (AMR) Dispatcher, Michael also told that dispatcher he had put the baby in the bassinet beside his bed and then took a nap. He told the AMR dispatcher that Fern was hot to the touch, not awake, completely stiff, not breathing, and that he could feel the heat coming off of her. The AMR dispatcher talked Michael through starting CPR, and he repeated the instructions back as he completed mouth to mouth breathing and chest compressions on Fern. The paramedics arrived as Michael was doing chest compressions. Michael also told the paramedics he had fallen asleep, but didn't mean to sleep that long, and that he found the baby in her bassinet next to the bed when he woke up. The following exchange could be heard on the 9-1-1 call:
Paramedics pronounced Fern dead shortly after arriving on scene and reporting her condition to the department's medical director.
Collin County Sheriff's Office Investigator Danny Stasik arrived on scene at 1:40 p.m. He spoke with Michael inside the house, and Michael admitted he forgot Fern in the minivan when he returned from dropping the other children off at school that morning and he found Fern in the minivan after waking up. Michael said when he returned home that morning, he was feeling "very woozy," wandered into the house, and fell asleep immediately. He thought he would lie down for a few minutes, but ended up sleeping until 1:00 p.m. Michael said he completely forgot about Fern. Michael also told Stasik that when he found Fern, she was stiff and "so hot," and his "panic brain" told him he should try to bring her body temperature down as quickly as possible. So, he put her in the refrigerator as he was dialing 9-1-1, but removedher to start following the 9-1-1 dispatcher's instructions. Michael said he was on the phone with Jennifer when he found Fern and removed her from the minivan.
Stasik transported Michael to the sheriff's office for questioning. During that interview, Michael again told Stasik he found Fern in the minivan after he woke up. Michael told investigators he had taken his other two kids to the preschool that morning but not Fern because she had been sick and was going to stay home. Michael explained he took Fern with him in the minivan to drop the other children off at school. He returned home around 9:00 a.m., fell asleep, and woke up around 1:00 p.m. When he awoke, he realized Fern was not in the bassinet by the bed, and he found her in the minivan. He stated he must have forgotten her in the minivan when he returned home because he was very sleepy that morning. He also told investigators he takes several prescription medications to treat his bipolar disorder. The one medication discussed in detail was Seroquel, which Michael described as a sedative and "mood leveler." Michael said his prescribed dose was 600 milligrams and, within forty minutes of taking that dose, he would be out for eight to nine hours. He told investigators he took his prescribed dose of Seroquel at 12:30 a.m., which was later than normal. Michael also explained that he put Fern in the refrigerator as he was calling 9-1-1 because she was so hot and, even though he knew she was dead, he thought there might be some hope to bring her back. Michael told investigators his normal routine is to drop all three kids off at the preschool and then "there's nothing to do" when he returns home on a normal day. He usually checks email andmaybe works on hobbies when he gets home. But that day, he "just stumbled into bed" because he was so sleepy.
The State indicted Michael on one count of manslaughter, one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and one count of abandoning or endangering a child. The State's witnesses included the dispatcher from the sheriff's office, the preschool director, two paramedics who first arrived on scene, three sheriff's office investigators who dealt with crime scene evidence and witness interviews, the medical examiner, and Stasik. The State also presented video interviews of Jennifer and Michael and a video of Michael doing a walk-through with Stasik showing what happened from the time he returned home that morning to the time paramedics arrived. In addition, the jury heard the 9-1-1 call and saw videos from the school of Michael dropping his son and daughter off that morning. After the State rested, the trial court determined there was insufficient evidence to go to the jury on manslaughter.
Michael did not testify. He did, however, present several witnesses for his defense. Four of those witnesses, the pediatric nurse practitioner who treated Fern for her...
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