Beech Tree News Network

MORGANTOWN – A Butler County woman whose conviction for first-degree manslaughter in the death of her daughter was overturned by the Kentucky Court of Appeals is requesting her case be retried.

Brittany Garcia, 27, rejected an offer from the Butler County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office to serve a 10-year sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, her attorney, Sam Lowe of the Department of Public Advocacy, said during a hearing in her case Wednesday.

Garcia and Nick Staples, 32, were charged originally with murder and first-degree criminal abuse in the death of Garcia’s daughter, 5-month-old Angel Tucker.

A state medical examiner determined that the baby died Dec. 4, 2009, of a lack of oxygen to the brain, preceded by a head injury resulting from severe blunt force trauma, according to court records.

Angel was also found to have rib fractures in various stages of healing.

Garcia and Staples were found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and first-degree criminal abuse at a jury trial in 2011, recommending a 25-year sentence for Staples and 15 years for Garcia.

Staples and Garcia were tried together, and neither of them testified.

The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld Staples’ conviction on first-degree criminal abuse, but overturned the manslaughter conviction in 2014 on the grounds that the jury was improperly instructed on the law regarding first-degree manslaughter.

Staples pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in Butler Circuit Court in 2016, accepting a 15-year sentence.

Garcia’s conviction for first-degree manslaughter was reversed by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which upheld her conviction and five-year sentence on first-degree criminal abuse, which she has completed.

In a 14-page opinion issued in 2014, the state appeals court found that the instructions the jury relied upon to convict Garcia misstated the law of complicity in that they allowed jurors to find Garcia guilty of manslaughter as an accomplice to the crime based upon Staples’ criminal intent and knowledge of the crime instead of Garcia’s.

“While the evidence of guilt was overwhelming, distinguishing who was the principal and who was the accomplice was debatable,” Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Christopher Nickell wrote in the unanimous ruling reversing Garcia’s conviction.

Garcia is scheduled to reappear in court on April 11, when she is anticipated to receive a trial date.

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Bowling Green Daily News

By Justin Story
Bowling Green Daily News
Kentucky Press Society