Grand jury indicts mom; baby's death linked to ice
By David Waite and Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writers
For the first time in Hawai'i, a mother has been charged with manslaughter in her 2-day-old son's death that prosecutors said occurred because she smoked crystal methamphetamine in the days before and after his birth.
Kane'ohe resident Tayshea Aiwohi, 31, was indicted by an O'ahu grand jury yesterday on the charge of recklessly killing Treyson Aiwohi on July 17, 2001.
The indictment does not refer to Aiwohi's alleged methamphetamine use. But in asking that bail for Aiwohi be set at $50,000 and that a bench warrant be issued for her arrest, city deputy prosecutor Vickie Kapp told Circuit Judge Dan Kochi that Aiwohi had smoked ice before and after her son's birth.
The charge covers the period of July 12-17, 2001. The baby was born July 15.
The medical examiner's office listed the cause of Treyson's death as "poisoning by psychotropic agents" or "psychotropic stimulants" and classified it a homicide.
The indictment comes at a time of heightened community interest in crystal methamphetamine abuse, with Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona hosting a drug summit, a joint House and Senate committee holding hearings on the ice problem, and the broadcast of the Edgy Lee film "Ice: Hawai'i's Crystal Meth Epidemic."
"If a mother has a choice between proper care of her child and drugs, and she chooses drugs and that leads to the child's death, we will prosecute the case," City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said yesterday.
If convicted of manslaughter, Aiwohi would face sentencing options that range from probation to up to 20 years in jail.
Aiwohi could not be reached yesterday for comment.
Pat Puakea, Aiwohi's mother, said that in the past three years, her daughter had fought her way out of drug addition, worked hard to hold her marriage together, survived the death of a child and strengthened ties with her five surviving children.
"She has worked so hard," Puakea said. "She has done everything they told her to do and more.
"She is telling her kids, 'Don't get mad, don't get angry over it,' " Puakea said. "She has her faith, and that is what she is holding on to."
Puakea said her daughter did not expose Treyson to methamphetamine during her pregnancy.
"She has been clean," Puakea said.
California case noted
A California jury last month found a 31-year-old woman guilty of murder after her three-month-old son overdosed on methamphetamine in her breast milk, but Carlisle said Aiwohi was not charged with murder because there was no indication that the infant's death was intentional.
In a manslaughter case, the prosecution must show that the accused consciously disregarded the risks associated with the behavior that led to someone else's death, Carlisle said.
Recklessness alleged
He used "Russian roulette" as an example, saying that a person who points a revolver loaded with a single bullet at someone else and spins the barrel before firing may not be intending to kill the other person, but has chosen to disregard the dangers associated with that behavior.
"We prosecute cases where parents intentionally kill their children ... and prosecute cases where parents recklessly kill their children as well," Carlisle said.
Some local medical officials were divided in their views on the prosecution.
"Yes, it is appropriate to prosecute if there is an abnormal death and they think the mother was responsible," said Sherry Loo, a pediatrician at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children.
Loo said she thought the prosecution should go forward whether the methamphetamine was delivered to the baby before it was born — through the mother's blood system — or afterward.
Consequences weighed
Chris Derauf, a Kapi'olani pediatrician involved in a national study to determine the effects of methamphetamine exposure on the babies of women who used it during pregnancy, said the prosecution of mothers based upon what they did during pregnancy can have negative consequences for other children.
"It will drive people away from seeking care. From coming in prenatally. From coming to hospitals to deliver their babies. From bringing up the issue of drug use and from reaching out for possible treatment," Derauf said.
The mothers of ice-exposed babies are not using drugs to hurt their children, Derauf said.
"They are heavily addicted to these drugs and they are doing it because they can't help themselves — despite the consequences that may come to their child," Derauf said.
Loo said she would add a caveat to her support for prosecution in cases of meth-exposed babies: The prosecution has to prove the death was caused by the means alleged, and in the case of an infant death, that might not be easy.
Authorities have said that after leaving the hospital, Aiwohi may have breast-fed her baby while she continued to use meth, a practice that, as pediatricians routinely caution mothers, can deliver lethal doses to the child.
But Loo said breast milk usually isn't flowing freely enough two days after birth to deliver a dose like that, and Derauf said methamphetamine routed through the baby's system before birth could remain in the child's urine for 72 hours. Its presence, he said, does not mean the child died from the meth exposure.
Does state have role?
Loo also said she thought the state's role in the death should be examined.
"I think CPS (Child Protective Services) has some accounting to do, too," she said.
Lillian Koller, head of Human Services, which oversees Child Protective Services, said that no state has laws that require all children to be taken from every mother who uses drugs during her pregnancy.
Hospitals are required to report the mothers to CPS when babies are found to be meth-exposed. Social workers then must decide on a case-by-case basis where the babies' best chances lie, Koller said.
She said an average of 80 percent of the 17 meth-exposed babies born in Hawai'i each month do not go home. They are sent to foster homes. Some of the outcomes in either case are positive, she said. Others are not.
"I am hopeful this case will be a wake-up call for mothers using ice to understand and appreciate that it can be lethal to breast-feed newborns," she said.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030 and Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2430.
