Couple pleads no contest in death of infant
A Brownsville couple on Monday pleaded no contest to endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment in the death of their 2-month-old daughter in 2008. Lilly Martin died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and there are no allegations that her parents, Jennifer Gaster and Daniel Martin II, harmed the child. The couple was charged because they were both drinking and doing cocaine at the time the baby died.
Their plea deal comes with a sentence of probation.
Gaster testified before Fayette County Judge John F. Wagner Jr. that when she woke up on June 6, 2008, she found her daughter was not breathing and called 911.
When Gaster called 911, District Attorney Jack R. Heneks said she told the operator she was “so (expletive) drunk last night.” During the plea proceeding, Daniel Martin acknowledged he also was impaired the evening their daughter died.
“Had they not been drunk and high, they would have realized their child was in distress?” Wagner asked.
“Yes,” District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. said.
State police charged the couple after an inquest into Lilly Martin’s death found there was “obvious neglect” on her parents’ part.
Trooper Joseph Panepinto testified at a previous hearing that Gaster said she woke up to feed her daughter around 2 a.m., and then fell asleep in a recliner. When she woke up around 10 a.m., Gaster reportedly told police she found her daughter wedged between her leg and the arm of a chair, police said.
When he arrived at the couple’s home, Panepinto testified that he smelled alcohol when he was talking to Gaster and Daniel Martin after their daughter’s death.
Wagner told the couple that as part of their probation sentences, he intended to preclude them from drinking and using drugs, and their probation could be revoked if they violated his order.
He will sentence both of them of Dec. 20.