Massachusetts mother Kristen LaBrie was convicted today of attempted murder, child endangerment and assault and battery, on charges that she withheld life-saving chemotherapy medications from her autistic, cancer-stricken son.
LaBrie failed to administer at least five months of cancer medications to her son Jeremy Fraser, after the boy was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2006. He died in 2009 at age 9.
LaBrie claimed that she "couldn't bear to see" how sick the drugs made her son and became worried that he would die from the side effects.
Jeremy's oncologist, Dr. Alison Friedmann of Massachusetts General Hospital, had testified that she told LaBrie her son's cancer had a cure rate of 85 percent to 90 percent under a two-year, five-phase treatment plan that included some hospital stays, regular visits to the hospital clinic to receive chemotherapy treatments and at-home administration of several cancer medications.
Friedmann said the boy's cancer went into remission after months of treatment. But in early 2008, Friedmann said she discovered that the cancer had returned in the form of leukemia and that LaBrie had not filled at least five months of prescriptions she was supposed to give him.
LaBrie, who came to her own defense several times, said she was afraid the side effects of the medication were worsening the disease. According to the Associated Press, she also claimed she told Jeremy's doctors that she thought the boy "had had it" and couldn't survive any more chemotherapy.
The prosecution portrayed LaBrie as a single mother who became resentful of her son.
Her relationship with Jeremy's father, Eric Fraser became untenable and the defense argued that LaBrie was receiving no help from the father, even after their son got cancer. After LaBrie was arrested, Jeremy went to live with his father. According to the Associated Press, Eric Fraser was killed in a motorcycle accident seven months after his son's death.
LaBrie will be sentenced Friday morning. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years on the attempted murder charge, 10 years on a charge of assault and battery on a disabled person, five years on assault and battery on a child causing substantial injury and 2 1/2 years on reckless endangerment of a child.
Kristen LaBrie Convicted Of Attempted Murder
Apr 12, 2011, 13:54 by John Steele