Mother convicted in baby's death in Chesterfield

Credit: CHESTERFIELD COUNTY POLICE

Robin Imani Varner, 25, was sentenced to four years in the death of her child.

By: Mark Bowes | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: February 07, 2012

CHESTERFIELD, Va. --

A Chesterfield County mother was convicted today of inadvertently killing her infant daughter last year by placing numerous pillows and a blanket over the baby’s head to muffle her incessant crying.

Robin Imani Varner, 25, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and involuntary manslaughter -– reduced from second-degree murder –- in the Jan. 3, 2011, suffocation death of 5-month-old Josephina Lee.

Judge Harold W. Burgess Jr. accepted Varner’s pleas and set sentencing for May 2. Varner could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years on the two counts, but state guidelines call for a prison term from eight months to two years and two months. Judges are not bound by the guidelines.

According to evidence, emergency responders were summoned about 9:30 a.m. to Varner’s home in the 13000 block of Rockridge Road, where they found the child unresponsive and not breathing. They were unable to revive her and she was pronounced dead CJW Medical Center (Chippenham).

Varner initially told police that her child had been crying inconsolably for several hours on Jan. 2, and about 10:30 that evening she placed her daughter on a small mattress on the floor with several pillows surrounding her before going to bed herself.

After drifting off to sleep, Varner told police the child continued to cry through the night but she ignored her, hoping she would eventually fall asleep. Varner said she got up about 8:30 a.m. the next morning and took a shower, but felt something was wrong and checked on Josephina, who she found unresponsive.

Later, after a police detective told Varner it would have been impossible for Josephina to have been smothered with the pillows placed only beside her, Varner admitted to doing more. During a reenactment of the events, Varner described how she placed a bed pillow and blanket over the child, and then piled three of four more throw pillows on top of that, capped by a heavier U-shaped nursing pillow.

Varner told police that she had done something similar before, minus the heavier pillow.

“She knew it was dangerous and could smother the baby,” Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney David Rigler said Varner told the detective.

At the time of the death, Varner and her baby lived in a large home south of Chester that was occupied by 11 people, including grandparents, great-grandparents and a sister of Varner’s with four children, and there was a lot of confusion going on inside the home, defense attorney Greg Sheldon said.

Sheldon said Varner has expressed a great deal of remorse and accepted full responsibility for what she did. He said Varner is being treated for depression in jail, where she continues to be held.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)