Judge considers suppression petition
A Fayette County judge will decide if statements made by a Uniontown mother accused of killing her 3-month-old son and evidence seized from her home should be suppressed. Lori Workman, 26, of Varndell Street is charged with fracturing the skull of her son, Homer Workman, when she used a piece of his crib to hit him repeatedly in August 2008.
The child lived with his mother and father, Eric Workman Sr., who was not charged in the infant’s death on Sept. 22, 2008.
Police said Lori Workman found the child unresponsive in his crib that morning, and she and her husband tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the child, and then called 911.
Police officers initially searched the couple’s home and found pieces of tape in and around the crib and on a infant pacifier.
When police questioned the Workmans, they indicated that the couple acknowledged taping a pacifier in the child’s mouth the night before.
That raised investigators’ suspicions, and they later found that Homer Workman’s brain was not properly developed, and that he had a fractured skull and broken ribs.
When police interviewed Lori Workman months later, they indicated she admitted squeezing her son, and allowing his head to hit the handle of the stroller during another walk.
She reportedly told police she was angry because her husband wasn’t helping her care for their children.
Police said Lori Workman also told police that on Aug. 20 she and her husband were moving into a home on Varndell Street, and she was assembling Homer Workman’s crib.
When the child would not stop crying, Lori Workman reportedly told police she used a piece of the crib to hit the infant in the head.
When the crying still didn’t cease, police said she hit the boy again.
Lori Workman’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Mary Campbell Spegar, asked Judge Ralph C. Warman to suppress that statement and others she gave to police, alleging that she was not properly read her rights.
Spegar also indicated that there was not enough evidence to charge her client, and has asked that the charges be dismissed.