Mom pleads not guilty in baby's death
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
A 31-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to manslaughter yesterday in the 2001 death of her two-day-old son in a case that her lawyer called "perverse, counterproductive" and "mean spirited."
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
City prosecutors, however, say the prosecution is appropriate.
Tayshea Aiwohi, with public defender Todd Eddins, pleaded not guilty in the death of her 2-day-old son. Eddins says the case, alleging both pre- and postnatal use of drugs, should be dropped by prosecutors.
Tayshea Aiwohi, whose trial tentatively was set for December 15, is the first woman in Hawai'i to be prosecuted on a charge of manslaughter for allegedly using methamphetamine during the last days of her pregnancy.
Aiwohi's son Treyson was born July 15, 2001, and died shortly after the mother and son were released from Kaiser Medical Center.
Medical officials said the infant had methamphetamine in his body, and a deputy medical examiner said the dangerously high levels of the drug were what killed him. Prosecutors charged her with recklessly killing the infant.
Deputy public defender Todd Eddins attacked the prosecution of Aiwohi as illegal under state and federal law.
"Tayshea has five children who are lovingly cared for by herself and her husband," he said. "She works as a teacher's aid and in a drug-treatment program. She is active in her community. She has successfully combated a substance-abuse problem."
He said the prosecution appeared to be trying to redefine Hawai'i laws that define the rights of a person as beginning at birth, extending them to cover a fetus.
"In seeking to lock up this mother as a killer for conduct allegedly occurring prenatal," he said, "the state has fiendishly manipulated the manslaughter law."
State statues covering manslaughter define "a person" as someone who has been born and is alive.
But Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle interprets the provision differently, giving less emphasis to whether the criminal behavior occurred before or after birth, and more to the fact that a live birth had occurred.
"Once you have a human being born alive," he said, "As long as the reckless behavior caused the death, then that is all you need."
Carlisle characterized Eddin's comments as "ranting and raving."
"His office complained when we used the manslaughter statute to prosecute drunken drivers, and that's been proven to be constitutional," he said.
The indictment against Aiwohi alleges the reckless behavior took place both before and after her son's birth.
Cases in California have been based on breast-feeding by drug-abusing women, and the prosecution could proceed on that basis.
Eddins said Aiwohi breast-fed Treyson and had done so while the two were in the hospital and under the watchful eyes of medical authorities.
Child Protective Services also evaluated the mother and son, and officials decided the family should go home together, Eddins said.
"We intend to prevail on this case, based on several constitutional and statutory principles — most significantly the due process principals enshrined in both our constitution and the United States Constitution," he said.
"This case, in our view, should be dumped at the pretrial stage," Eddins said.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com
