Adoptive mother gets bond of $15,000; Woman accused of killing her adopted daughter

Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)

Author: JOHN STEVENSON jstevenson@heraldsun.com; 419-6643

A Durham woman received a $15,000 bond Thursday on a charge that she murdered her adopted daughter, who died in June 2003 after being abused and seriously injured almost eight years earlier.

Chief District Judge Elaine M. O'Neal allowed the bond for Melinda Ann Wilkins, 40, after a defense lawyer said Wilkins would not flee from prosecution and had never been in trouble before.

Attorney Jay Ferguson also said that Wilkins had gastric bypass surgery three weeks ago and is on medical disability, unable to work.

"She simply is not a flight risk whatsoever," Ferguson added. "She's not going anywhere. She looks forward to the day she can have a jury trial."

Wilkins was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday and held without bond until Thursday.

The case sparked a debate among lawyers about whether Wilkins can legitimately be prosecuted so long after her daughter was injured.

The situation is doubly complicated because no autopsy was performed to precisely determine the cause of the child's death, several attorneys told The Herald-Sun.

"This is totally the most unique case I have ever handled in the criminal arena," Ferguson said Thursday.

But prosecutor Mitchell Garrell insisted the law is on his side.

The victim, Melissa Wilkins, then 19 months old, suffered injuries in August 1995 that sent her to Duke University Hospital. From there, she was transferred to Lenox Baker Children's Hospital in Durham and then to the Hilltop Home for Retarded Children in Raleigh, where she spent most of her life.

The child suffered a blood clot on the brain, retinal hemorrhaging, a fractured back and a fractured skull, investigators said. They said the injuries rendered her blind, speechless and unable even to sit up without support.

Wilkins originally was arrested in 1995 and charged with felonious child abuse. She pleaded guilty in November 1996 and was sentenced to between 31 and 47 months in prison. She was granted parole in July 1999.

In June 2003, the child died at the age of 9. But because of a mix-up with the death certificate, police didn't learn about her death until July 2004. By then, it was too late to perform an autopsy because the child's remains had been cremated.

But lawyer Ferguson said Thursday that, despite her 1996 guilty plea, Wilkins has "never admitted any responsibility whatsoever" for the child's death.

In fact, court records indicate that Wilkins entered the plea under a seemingly paradoxical provision of the law that allows people to plead guilty to a crime without actually admitting fault. They may do so when they think it is in their best interests, thus avoiding the gamble of a jury trial and a possibly longer prison sentence.

Prosecutor Garrell, however, argued Thursday for a bond higher than $15,000.

He said Wilkins had given conflicting stories to authorities in 1995, first contending that her daughter fell off a couch and later that she was tossing the girl in the air when the injury occurred.

But medical experts concluded that the child was a victim of "shaken baby impact syndrome," Garrell said. Quoting the experts, he said the injuries were "consistent with grabbing the child around the ribcage and exerting pressure so that the ribs were fractured."

A number of family members and friends were on hand Thursday to support Wilkins during her court appearance.

One of them was neighbor Jeff Scott, who said the 1995 injuries occurred at his house, although he did not actually see them happen. He described Wilkins as a nonviolent woman who loved children.

Scott said he also did not believe the prosecution's allegations that Wilkins abused her daughter. According to Scott, some marks on the child were caused by mosquito bites and scratches from a potty, rather than abuse.