Charges filed in killing of baby
A first-degree assault charge was upgraded to second-degree murder Monday against a Spokane foster father suspected of beating a 20-month-old boy who died Sunday.
Avery E. Sam, 37, remained in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Court documents revealed that Sam was a convicted felon and his wife was wanted on two warrants when the state Division of Child Protective Services gave them custody of the boy who died, Devin L. Miller.
The child protective agency also gave them custody of a 7-month-old foster child, who was one of two children removed from the home at 2718 E. Diamond after the alleged assault on Devin. Agency officials were not immediately available for comment.
A police affidavit for a warrant to search the home says Avery Sam has convictions for drug possession, second-degree attempted theft and drunken driving. The affidavit also says he was arrested in Arizona on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter while driving drunk, but officers hadn’t been able to determine whether Sam was convicted on that charge.
His wife, Angelique P. Sam, 34, also known as Angelique Tomeo, has two felony warrants for three counts of alleged forgery.
Cpl. Tom Lee, the police spokesman, said the warrants – issued in 2001 at the request of Spokane police – are still active but Angelique Sam hasn’t been arrested.
Detective Mark Burbridge said in the search warrant affidavit that Angelique Sam told investigators she took Devin to a doctor Wednesday for a routine checkup and immunization shots.
After returning home, Angelique Sam reportedly said, she was preparing to give Devin a bath and he fell into the tub and hit his head while she was distracted by the 7-month-old.
Burbridge said Angelique Sam reported that Devin became fussy and began throwing up within a few hours. She didn’t know whether that might be related to the fall or the inoculations, so she took the child to Holy Family Hospital for a CT scan.
The scan showed no injury, according to Burbridge’s summary of Sam’s account, but the boy continued to vomit and began having seizures Friday evening.
Burbridge said a subsequent CT scan at Sacred Heart Medical Center on Saturday revealed a “massive subdural hematoma” of the brain – swelling from internal bleeding – that was preventing any blood from reaching the child’s brain.
A doctor described the injury as “fantastically huge” and not consistent with tumbling into a bathtub. The doctor believed such an injury could not have been missed by the CT scan conducted Wednesday, Burbridge said.
Also, the detective reported, the doctor found bleeding in Devin’s eyes that was “consistent with shaken-baby syndrome.”
A police officer who went to the hospital spotted bruises on the boy’s ribs and left temple. Angelique Sam said the rib bruises resulted from a fall on a pool stairway a week to 10 days earlier, according to Burbridge.
The detective’s affidavit doesn’t say how officers concluded that Avery Sam was responsible for the fatal head injury.