BOULDER — An attorney for the Superior mother accused of suffocating her baby by putting plastic bags and blankets over his face pressed the deputy coroner Wednesday about whether the 6-month-old boy could have suffered Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“You see a number of the same symptoms in asphyxia as you would in a SIDS death?” Katherine Herald, one of Stephanie Rochester’s defense attorneys, asked Boulder County Deputy Coroner John Meyer during a preliminary hearing in Boulder’s district court.
Stephanie Rochester, who’s charged with first-degree murder, told investigators that she smothered her baby over a period of several hours with bags and blankets because she was afraid he had autism and would ruin her life.
But an autopsy didn’t uncover any fibers in Rylan’s nose, mouth or lungs, Meyer testified during Wednesday’s preliminary hearing, held to determine whether enough evidence exists for a case to proceed.
The judge ruled that it did, and Rochester is still being held without bond in Boulder County Jail.
Read the rest of this report at .
