Sterling Heights

Baby's death ruled a homicide in suspected meth lab

By Terry Oparka
C & G Staff Writer

Infant died of malnutrition and dehydration, says medical examiner

STERLING HEIGHTS — A judge will decide if parents of an infant who died of dehydration and malnutrition due to neglect in a suspected meth lab will face murder charges in circuit court.

Tina Marie Boughner and Andrew Marc Young have been charged with the second-degree murder of 18-month-old son Wyatt, a life felony, and manufacturing a controlled substance and maintenance of a lab.

During the second day of the pretrial hearing on Oct. 26, 41-A District Court Judge Stephen Sierawski heard testimony from Macomb County Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz, who said the cause of Wyatt’s death was homicide due to malnutrition and dehydration due to child neglect.

During the first day of the couple’s preliminary exam on Oct. 17, Sierawski ruled that Young was competent to stand trial, based on a psychiatric evaluation.

Boughner called police at 12:52 p.m. July 9 and said her son was not breathing.

The first police officer who arrived at the couple’s home on Betley Drive, which backs up to Henry Ford High School in the Clinton River Road and Schoenherr area, after the 911 call came in July 9, said that it appeared that Wyatt had been dead for some time and that the infant’s eyes were sunken.

Police described the home as hot and filthy, with garbage and other items piled six feet high. The kitchen was very dirty, with fungus growing on a measuring cup containing food debris, cigarette ashes were everywhere, and empty syringes and methadone bottles strewn on the floor, police testified.

Sterling Heights Police Detective John Jacob said that the condition of the home was the worst he’d seen in more than 25 years of police work.

Assistant Prosecutor William Daly, chief of the drug unit for the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, said that Wyatt had red, oozing sores in his diaper area.

Police also found a respiratory mask, tubing, gloves, a heating plate, a metal can with plastic placed over the top, a wheelbarrow filled with ashes and other burnt materials, two portable bonfire pits, and chemicals, including sulfur, mercury and acids, in the home.

Suspecting a meth lab, police exited the home and called the Sterling Heights Hazmat Team and Michigan State Police to the scene, who determined that it was safe to re-enter, said police officer and evidence technician Kevin DeRoy.

Jacob said that Young told him he used the chemicals to make salt and vinegar potato chips and clean an oil stain in the driveway. Police found no potatoes in the home.

Young’s attorney, Jeff Cojocar, and Boughner’s attorney, Carl McPherson, filed motions challenging the charges pending against the couple.

“They did not murder their son,” said McPherson. “I don’t believe there’s any evidence of second-degree murder.”

At the Oct. 17 preliminary hearing, McPherson said that no methamphetamine residue was found in the home, from which the couple was being evicted.  McPherson said that Wyatt was born two months premature and had no health issues.

“At most, this is manslaughter,” said Cojocar.

Sierawski will rule Nov. 15 if there is enough evidence to bind the cases over to Macomb County Circuit Court.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Terry Oparka at toparka@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1054.