Durham child's death called murder

News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC)

Author: Benjamin Niolet; Staff Writer

DURHAM -- Melinda Ann Wilkins has had little, if any, contact with her adopted daughter since the day nine years ago when paramedics found the baby unconscious and broken.

Wilkins served two years and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to felony child abuse for the injuries of her 19-month old daughter, Melissa. Wilkins now lives in Durham on disability because of hip problems.

No one told her when the child died last year. She found out this week when authorities arrested her and charged her with murder, saying her actions in 1995 were what killed the little girl.

At a brief hearing Thursday, Wilkins' family described her as a loving mother who lost her daughter in a tragic accident. But a prosecutor said Wilkins, 40, is a murderer who shook her daughter fiercely and slammed her into the ground, the worst act of what they suspect was a pattern of abuse.

During and after the bond hearing, friends, family members and authorities contributed pieces to the case, which began nine years ago.

On Aug. 16, 1995, Wilkins was at the home of Jeff Scott and Susan Gaylord, folding laundry and watching Melissa and the couple's children.

Sometime that day, paramedics were called to the home and found Melissa with severe injuries. Her pupils were dilated and one of her vertebra was broken. She had skull fractures and retinal hemorrhaging. Wilkins told paramedics that the girl had fallen off the couch. She would later say that she was playing with her daughter and had thrown her up in the air but became dizzy and could not catch her.

Mitch Garrell, an assistant district attorney, said the state's medical experts determined that the injuries were far too severe to be accidental. Further, they found scars and marks on the child that suggested someone had squeezed her until her ribs fractured.

Scott spoke in defense of his former neighbor and employee, saying that she was great with children and that the old marks likely came from bites and the scratches from the potty she was using at the time. As for her story changing, Scott said Wilkins freely admits she was nervous at first and gave paramedics an untrue story.

In November 1996, Wilkins pleaded guilty under an arrangement that allowed her to not admit guilt or responsibility, her appointed attorney, Jay Ferguson, said Thursday. Ferguson told Chief District Court Judge Elaine O'Neal that charging someone as the state has done is unusual.

"I don't know of anything like it in Durham or North Carolina," Ferguson said.

Garrell told the judge that he still needs to do some research on how the state can proceed with first-degree murder charges. But he said there is no question that Melissa died of injuries she received in 1995.After that, she was institutionalized, unable to see, walk or communicate. She was on feeding tubes and in wheelchairs, he said. Garrell declined to say exactly what killed Melissa.

When she died in June 2003, her death was at first attributed to natural causes and the case was not referred to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Durham police learned of the death earlier this summer. Her body was cremated, but a medical examiner reviewed her medical records and determined that Melissa did not die of natural causes.

O'Neal set Wilkins' bail at $15,000 and required her to be released to the custody of her first cousin, Brenda Richardson.

"It's not right for her to go serve time on a charge and come back and be charged," Richardson said after the hearing.

Wilkins was still in the Durham County jail Thursday evening.