Hearing delayed in daughter death case; Adoptive mom up on murder charge 9 years after abuse

Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)

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

A Durham woman spent a second night in jail without bond Wednesday on a charge that she murdered her adopted daughter, who died in June 2003 after the woman had seriously injured her almost eight years earlier.

Officials had planned to hold a bond hearing for Melinda Ann Wilkins, 40, on Wednesday morning. But Public Defender Bob Brown told a judge he had no authority to represent her on the first-degree murder charge. His office may be appointed to cases no more serious than second-degree murder, he said.

As a result, the Durham-based Capital Defender's Office was assigned to represent Wilkins, and another bond hearing was scheduled for today.

Meanwhile, lawyers squared off Wednesday over whether Wilkins can be legitimately prosecuted for murder so long after injuring her daughter. An assistant district attorney said legal precedents clearly pave the way. But several defense lawyers said they thought otherwise, particularly since no autopsy was performed to precisely determine the cause of death.

The victim, Melissa Wilkins, then 19 months old, suffered injuries on Aug. 16, 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.

According to investigators, Melissa suffered a blood clot on the brain, retinal hemorrhaging, a fractured back and a fractured skull. Officials said the child's injuries rendered her blind and speechless.

Melinda 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. Parole was granted in July 1999.

The injured child eventually died last year at the age of 9. But because of a mix-up with the death certificate, police didn't learn of her demise until this July.

Police said an attending physician listed the cause of Melissa's death as natural. But the N.C. Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill belatedly got involved and contacted law enforcement authorities two months ago.

By then, it was too late to perform an autopsy because the dead child's remains had been cremated.

Meanwhile, Melinda Wilkins was arrested a second time on Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder, for which the only possible penalties are life in prison without parole or death.

Lawyers agreed Wednesday that the constitutional safeguard against "double jeopardy" -- being prosecuted twice for the same crime -- does not prevent Wilkins from being tried for murder. They said felonious child abuse, the crime for which Wilkins was prosecuted earlier, is an entirely different offense.

But some attorneys predicted other problems for the prosecution, including the lack of an autopsy and the long time lag between Melissa's injury and death.

Common law once included what was known as the "year-and-a-day rule," which held that murder charges had to be filed within that amount of time after an apparent homicide. But the rule no longer applies in North Carolina.

Veteran lawyer Bill Thomas said Wednesday that the time lag in the Wilkins case, coupled with the lack of an autopsy, is critical.

"There has to be a causal relationship between the death and the crime," Thomas told The Herald-Sun. "They could absolutely have trouble making a causal connection in this case. The more time that goes by, the harder it is. There are unlimited possibilities about the cause. Certainly, many people who have been assaulted have died of other causes not related to the crime."

Defense lawyer John Fitzpatrick agreed.

"I think the lack of an autopsy is devastating to the state," he said. "They've got to prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship between death and what this defendant did. There's a whole host of reasons why the girl could have died. Was she properly cared for at the children's home? Was she properly fed? Was she overmedicated? You can't just throw out blanket liability on the accused. I think that is cheating."

In addition, Fitzpatrick said Melinda Wilkins should be let off the hook because she has "done her time" for the crime to which she pleaded guilty.

"It should be over," he added. "The state was aware when she pleaded guilty that this child's injuries might get worse down the road. They could have held the case open and waited to see. When does it end? That's the big question."

Prosecutor Mitchell Garrell said Wednesday, however, that Melinda Wilkins is clearly responsible for the death because she set in motion a chain of circumstances that led to it.

Even if the child wasn't properly cared for, Wilkins must be held accountable because the girl never would have been institutionalized unless she had been abused, according to Garrell.

"This girl died because of what the woman did to her," Garrell said. "The case law is clear. If you commit an assault that leads to injuries that place a person in the hospital or in treatment, you are on the hook for matters that occur during the treatment -- even medical negligence."

There is at least one other pending Durham murder case in which no autopsy was conducted.

It involves the death of 50-year-old Larry Holland, who died seven months after being kicked into a coma last year.

Defense lawyer Scott Holmes represents the suspect in that case, Antonio Ramille Ryals.

If kicking was the cause of death, why did Holland cling to life for so many months, Holmes asked recently. Perhaps even medical malpractice was the reason for death, he suggested in a written court motion.

Holmes requested an exhumation and belated autopsy of Holland's remains.

But Superior Court Judge Henry Hight ruled against Holmes in June, saying he saw no reason to go to such lengths.

Hight accepted the opinion of N.C. Chief Medical Examiner John Butts, who examined Holland's medical records and concluded that he died from pneumonia. The pneumonia, in turn, was caused by the victim's brain injury, according to Butts.

It apparently was an oversight that treating physicians did not request an autopsy of Holland, even though state law required one, the medical examiner acknowledged.