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Accused mother faces hearing

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Kenneth Powers

A Canton Township woman accused of murdering her 2-year-old foster daughter faces a hearing tomorrow.

Carol Poole was charged with felony murder, manslaughter and child abuse after her foster daughter, Allison Newman, died of head injuries on Sept. 22, 2006. Poole’s defense attorney, Mark Satawa, said he is filing a motion to suppress statements that his client made to police before Newman’s death.

Satawa said that Poole’s statements to police should be discarded because she was overwhelmed by recent family tragedies.

“I think that all of the evidence shows that Ms. Poole was not in the right frame of mind to make statements to the police. Her foster care child was hurt and her father was dying in the hospital,” he said.

The medical examiner’s report stated that Newman died from brain swelling and bleeding on her brain’s surface. The report concluded that these types of injuries are usually caused from being struck at the back of the head against a hard surface.

Satawa, however, said that Newman died after falling off the railing of the upper part of her house to the lower part of the house. He also said that the accident apparently occurred as Newman and Poole were playing a game.

“My client is punishing herself because of the accident,” he said. “It’s a shame that this had to be made worse by charging her with first degree murder.”

Satawa also said that Poole and her husband continue to grieve over their foster daughter’s death.

“She and her husband are devastated about losing Allison,” he said. “They struggle with it everyday.”

2007 Sep 20