3 Baby sitters watched Michael Lee McMullen (3) die from a punishment called "The Wrap"

[UncomfortablyNumb]

Who does this shit? I cannot imagine taking one of my kids and wrapping them in 6 blankets AND tying the ends as discipline. Gross. I spent so much time when they were babies keeping blankets OUT of their face. Fuck, I still do it if I see a blanket covering too much of their face while they are sleeping. This is just disgusting.

[Boston Babe 73]

The media can't seem to agree on the spelling of this little boy's last name.


http://www.news-press.com/article/20...nclick_check=1

Grandma in 3-year-old's smothering death asks to be set free

(Jan. 9, 2014) The grandmother among a trio of caregivers arrested in the October smothering death of a Fort Myers 3-year-old has asked the courts to reduce her bond and let her out of jail.

Michael McMullen's maternal grandmother, Gale Watkins, 57, remains in jail on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child along with Michael's step-father, 21-year-old Douglas Garrigus; and family friend 45-year-old Donella Trainor. They remain in jail and have a court hearing later this month. The state attorney's office filed on the charge in November. The trio have pleaded not guilty. A hearing is slated later this month.

Watkins' attorney filed a motion yesterday to reduce her $250,000 bond, saying it was an unreasonable, court records show. Last month, Watkins also wrote a letter to the judge, pledging her innocence and framing herself as a victim of the media and a detective who wanted to "make an example of me and so far it has been that way," court records show.

"I have already lost so much, not just physically and mentally but my home, my lifelong pet (sic) my family memorys (sic) for holidays (sic) I cry in silence each day," she wrote in a Dec. 18 letter. "I would like to go home if I can since (sic) news is still hounding my family, but the detective that did (sic) search spilled my sons (sic) ashes that has been deceased for 15 years and to get counseling with my daughter to grieve this loss of my grandchild."




http://www.news-press.com/article/20...ure-an-anomaly

Smothering death review: Failure an anomaly

(Jan. 10, 2014) The failure to do a background check on a caregiver later accused of manslaughter in the smothering death of a Lee County 3-year-old was an isolated case and does not reflect a system-wide problem, according to an internal review of cases involving more than 300 children.

Michael Lee McMullen died Oct. 19 after being tightly wrapped in blankets as a bizarre form of punishment. Three people in the east Lee County home where he lived after the Department of Children and Families removed him from his mother's care were arrested on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child -- Michael's maternal grandmother, 57-year-old Gale Watkins; Michael's stepfather, 21-year-old Douglas Garrigus; and family friend 45-year-old Donella Trainor. They remain in jail and have a court hearing later this month.

A DCF review after Michael's death found there was no documentation a background check had been done on Trainor, who had been found guilty of child abuse in Michigan. A case manager and her supervisor with Lutheran Services Florida were fired for not following protocol. Lutheran Services Florida is subcontracted by the Children's Network of Southwest Florida to provide case management in Lee and Charlotte counties after a DCF child abuse investigation is closed.

The death prompted Lutheran Services Florida to review its local cases.

Background screenings had been completed in 100 percent of cases involving all 321 children who had been placed with relatives or non-relatives, stated the findings of the two-month review of case files done by Lutheran Services Florida after Michael McMullen's death. The system first looks for relatives to be caregivers before turning to foster homes, because it's typically less traumatizing for children to live with someone familiar.

"There were no glaring issues if somebody has a child abuse history and a criminal record that would negate them from being placement options," said Chris Card, chief operating officer for Lutheran Services Florida. "It wasn't something that was systemically a flaw in our system."

SO many (sic)s.

And if I'm reading this correctly, this kid was ALREADY taken from his Mom and placed with Grandma Stupid.

[animosity]

i feel like all those sics are unnecessary. if a person misspells/mis says one or two things wrong, fine, but that often, it seems like any person would know that it's not the newspaper's fault that the sentence sucks so hard.

[TupeloHoney]

http://www.winknews.com/Lights-Siren...akes-plea-deal

Babysitter in toddler wrapping death takes plea deal

(May 14, 2014) FORT MYERS, Fla.- Only WINK News has learned the baby sitter of a 3-year-old boy killed while wrapped in a blanket, will spend 20 years in prison. Donella Trainor pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child.

"I'll never see him again, and I'll never hear him tell me he loves me again," said Samantha Mcmullen, the victim's mother.

Michael McMullen died in October 2013.

Wednesday, his godmother, Donella Trainor, plead no contest in his death.

Deputies say Trainor wrapped him in blankets, tied the ends with rope, and left him struggling for hours, as a form of discipline.

Trainor will now spend 20 years in prison.

Samantha Mcmullen spoke exclusively with WINK News, hours after the plea deal was sealed.

"20 years isn't long enough for the loss of a child," said McMullen.

McMullen says to this day, she still doesn't understand what happened.

"She was a family friend for many many years, it's hurt me either way you look at it," said McMullen.

She was at work, as her son allegedly tried to break free.

"I just remember that smiling happy little boy telling me he loves me and playing with brothers and sister," said McMullen.

McMullen says Trainor was her best friend, and Wednesday's plea was hard to accept.

"Losing a child, that is something you will never get closure from. That's something you can never fix or repair or make better," said McMullen.

But she'll keep looking forward, in memory of Michael, and for her four other children.

"I'm focused on my children, and maintaining a strong family bond between us," said McMullen.

Trainor's 20 year prison sentence will be followed by 10 years probation.

She cannot have unsupervised contact with minors.

Michael's grandmother, Gale Watkins, and stepfather, Douglas Garrigus are also charged.

Deputies say they did nothing to help the boy as he begged to be released. They are behind bars, awaiting trial.

McMullen says she has talked to them, but has never asked them about the night Michael died.

[TupeloHoney]

The only one left now is Mema Gale. Doesn't look good for the old crow.


http://www.naplesnews.com/news/crime...death_50419183


Fort Myers toddler's stepfather gets 10 years for blanket wrapping death

(July 14, 2014) Fort Myers, Fla. - The stepfather of a Fort Myers 3-year-old who died last year while wrapped in heavy blankets as punishment accepted a plea agreement Monday resulting in a 10-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors said Douglas Garrigus, 22, twice checked on his stepson, Michael Lee McMullen, in the hours before the toddler died while wrapped in six layers of fabric knotted at the ends. Investigators said Michael cried, screamed, sweat and hyperventilated with his arms pinned to his side as he died in the cocoon.

While prosecutors said Garrigus didn't wrap the toddler -- that responsibility rested with family friend Donella Trainor -- he twice told the screaming child to calm down. Michael was wrapped for more than three hours at his Fort Myers home along the northern bank of the Caloosahatchee River, roughly five miles east of Interstate 75.

Garrigus pleaded no contest to a single count of principal to aggravated manslaughter of a child, receiving his prison sentence and five years probation upon his release. Trainor, 46, received 20 years in prison after accepting a plea agreement on aggravated manslaughter of a child in mid-May. The toddler's grandmother, 57-year-old Gale Watkins, remains in jail on no bond, awaiting trial on the same charge as Trainor.

Garrigus and Watkins told investigators that Trainor had used the wrap as a punishment before. Trainor was helping care for Watkins' four grandchildren, who were in their grandmother's custody following their mother's arrest on a domestic violence assault charge.

On a Saturday afternoon in October 2013, Michael was acting up, prompting Trainor to punish the child, investigators said. Trainor took Michael, pinned his arms to his side and wrapped him in a king-size blanket, Lee County sheriff's deputies said. Trainor then added five layers of fabric as Michael pleaded to be released, according to reports.

More than three hours later, after both Watkins and Garrigus had checked on the toddler, Michael was found unresponsive by his grandmother. He was hospitalized and died 40 minutes later.

[TupeloHoney]

I didn't think I could get any more disgusted with these people than I already was.

I can't believe he choked on a peanut butter sandwich. What that actual fuck. If he was wrapped too tight to move, who stuck the motherfucking sandwich in his mouth? These people are sick.




http://www.naplesnews.com/news/crime...-case_07821399

Trial begins in 'blanket wrapping' case

(Dec. 2, 2014) FORT MYERS, Fla. - When emergency responders found 3-year-old Michael McMullen unconscious in his Fort Myers home, the toddler's hands and lips were blue, his body stiff, dressed only in a diaper. Most peculiarly, Michael's body was hot to the touch.

"You could actually feel the heat radiating off the child with your gloves on," Fort Myers Shores firefighter Justin Simmons testified Tuesday.

In the coming days, investigators would determine Michael spent three to four hours wrapped in a cocoon of heavy blankets tied at the end. Medical examiners would find Michael choked on a Skippy peanut butter sandwich, causing him to die of asphyxiation. And the entire time, detectives discovered, Michael's stepfather, grandmother and a family friend were in the house, capable of untying the suffocating child.

On Tuesday, about a year after Michael's death, prosecutors opened the aggravated manslaughter trial against his grandmother, Gale Watkins, who's accused of criminally neglecting Michael as he died.

Michael's stepfather, Douglas Garrigus, 22, and the family friend accused of wrapping Michael, Donella Trainor, 46, have already accepted plea agreements on aggravated manslaughter charges.

They received 10 years and 20 years in prison, respectively.

Watkins, 57, isn't accused of wrapping Michael, but prosecutors asked jurors during opening statements to convict Watkins of manslaughter by culpable negligence.

Under standard Florida jury instructions, culpable negligence has several definitions, including "a reckless disregard of human life" and "grossly careless disregard for the safety and welfare of the public."

Prosecutors said Watkins, who had been watching her four grandchildren after they'd been removed by court order from her daughter's custody, failed to protect Michael from Trainor. Instead, prosecutors said, Watkins wanted Michael to calm down so she could rest.

"She did nothing," Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Russell said. "She asked for her 20 minutes of quiet. She was just really hurting that day, so she went to sleep."

Calling Michael's death a "tragic accident," Watkins' lawyer, James Ermacora, didn't quibble with how Michael died. But responsibility for the toddler's death, Ermacora said, fell on Trainor.

"Mistakes were made," Ermacora said. "The issue, though, is whether a crime was committed."

Testimony and records show Michael and his three siblings, all under age 7 at the time, lived in an unstable family environment marked by allegations of domestic and substance abuse.

The children had been sent to live with Watkins after Garrigus was accused of severely beating their mother, Samantha McMullen.

According to Department of Children and Families records obtained by the Miami Herald, Watkins reported that Garrigus had abused her grandchildren and had issues with anger and alcohol. One son asked a child protective investigator to pick up his sibling so Garrigus "would not kill them," the DCF records showed.

The day of Michael's death, Samantha McMullen was at work while Watkins, Garrigus and Trainor watched her four children. Sometime around 2 p.m., as Michael became agitated, Trainor took the 3-year-old into a bedroom and wrapped him in blankets, according to testimony and investigative records. Watkins wasn't there as Michael was wrapped, but she checked on him at least once as he pleaded to be released, investigators said.

Following Michael's death, Samantha McMullen told investigators she'd heard of Trainor wrapping her children in blankets as a form of punishment "four, five, or six times." Samantha McMullen said neither she nor her mother ever wrapped and tied blankets around the children, calling it "cruel."

"Covering (Michael) in a blanket wasn't such a big thing, but tying it at the ends, I'm not sure where that came into play," Samantha McMullen testified Tuesday. "We all just felt it was unsafe."

Watkins, Garrigus and Trainor initially gave conflicting statements about how Michael died. It wasn?t until a few days later, before a polygraph test, that Watkins confessed to her daughter.

"I was heartbroken for myself, for my son," Samantha McMullen testified. "I had just lost my son due to stupidity."

Watkins' trial is expected to last through Thursday. If convicted, she faces up to 30 years in prison.

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/27540101/...s#.VH-jFzHF98E

Trial for boy's abuse, death continues

(Dec. 3, 2014) LEE COUNTY, FL -Wednesday was the second day of trial in what some call a barbaric case of child abuse.

Investigators say a Fort Myers grandmother routinely helped roll her grandson in six layers of blankets when he behaved poorly.

In October of 2013, the boy suffocated and died.

Two others in the case are already serving prison sentences.

Prosecutors say Gale Watkins wasn't the one who tied up Michael Mcmullen that particular time - but went into the room and saw Michael wrapped, struggling to breathe and did nothing about it.

She had custody of her four grand-children because of a Department of Children and Families order.

The prosecution paints a gruesome picture of family life inside their Fort Myers home - saying the four children routinely drank from the toilets and had been given Benadryl to fall asleep.

For days, investigators tried to piece together how the boy died - eventually after multiple interviews - Gale Watkins told authorities what happened before taking a polygraph test.

She admitted she saw Michael wrapped, struggling to breath and did not do anything to help.

Michael was found in a pool of sweat, unconscious.

Watkins' son-in-law pleaded guilty and is serving 10 years prison. Their live-in nanny is serving 20 years.

If Watkins is convicted she faces 30 years in prison.

[Angiebla]

You can't speak when you are choking right? So if the grandmother came in to check on him, and he was pleading with her to release him, then he wasn't choking at that point. I'm wondering if the grandma wanted to "rest" and couldn't because Micheal was yelling, so she stuffed the sandwich in his mouth to shut him up

[UncomfortablyNumb]

Damn that Skippy! This wouldn't have happened if they had been choosy moms that chose Jif!

[SuchAClassicGirl]

Or she thought she was being a caring gramma by feeding him. Ugh. Waste of skin

[dream]

What if he had eaten the sandwich earlier and regurgitated during his distress and choked?

[u2addict]

What if he had eaten the sandwich earlier and regurgitated during his distress and choked?

In the coming days, investigators would determine Michael spent three to four hours wrapped in a cocoon of heavy blankets tied at the end. Medical examiners would find Michael choked on a Skippy peanut butter sandwich, causing him to die of asphyxiation. And the entire time, detectives discovered, Michael's stepfather, grandmother and a family friend were in the house, capable of untying the suffocating child.

Emphasis on me.
Well, it doesn't say 'regurgitated pb sammy', but that's an excellent question.

Where is the karma? Wrap up these three pieces of trailer trash and see how long they live, sammy and all.
First class assholes from hell.

[TupeloHoney]

What if he had eaten the sandwich earlier and regurgitated during his distress and choked?

Emphasis on me.
Well, it doesn't say 'regurgitated pb sammy', but that's an excellent question.

Where is the karma? Wrap up these three pieces of trailer trash and see how long they live, sammy and all.
First class assholes from hell.

Like u2 said, that's a good question, dream. Although I think they would have said he choked on his own vomit rather than choked on the sandwich if that had been the case. But they don't seem to have addressed it when questioning witnesses .... according to the news stories, anyway ... so I don't know. It wouldn't surprise me if one of them stuffed a sandwich in his mouth to shut him up.




It took the jury a whole half-hour to convict grandma:



http://www.naplesnews.com/news/crime...-case_53358565

Grandmother convicted in 'blanket wrapping' case


FORT MYERS, Fla. - For four hours, Michael McMullen struggled in a cocoon of blankets, overheating and choking on a peanut butter sandwich in what prosecutors called "a little coffin."

The 3-year-old's grandmother, Gale Watkins, could have helped. She didn't. And for that, the Fort Myers woman will spend at least a decade in prison.

Lee County jurors needed just 30 minutes Thursday to find Watkins, 57, guilty of aggravated manslaughter of a child, which carries a minimum of 13 years and maximum of 30 years in prison. While Watkins isn't accused of tying up her grandson in several heavy blankets knotted at the ends, jurors decided Watkins failed to protect her daughter's son, who died of asphyxiation.

Prosecutors said Watkins' family friend, Donella Trainor, restrained the rambunctious toddler in October 2013 while at Watkins' Fort Myers home. During the four torturous hours Michael spent in the cocoon of blankets, Watkins checked on him once, she told investigators, pleading for him to quiet down so she could rest for 20 minutes. At one point, Watkins told investigators she tried to untie the blankets, but she gave up after breaking a nail.

"This technique of tying as discipline for the children went way too far," Assistant State Attorney John Dommerich Jr. said. "This is not something as a caregiver you can just turn your back on, leaving this child like that for that long."

The verdict brings to near-closure the criminal cases against all three people in the house while Michael suffered. Watkins is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 12, while Trainor, 46, and the boy's stepfather, Douglas Garrigus, 22, have already pleaded to aggravated manslaughter of a child charges. Trainor received 20 years in prison, while Garrigus got 10 years behind bars.

Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Russell said the verdict and two prior pleas "absolutely" are justice for Michael.

"They were all culpable and they all deserve the sentences that two have already received and a third will be getting," Russell said.

Watkins, who turned down a 15-year plea offer, faced an uphill battle in convincing a jury she wasn't responsible for Michael's well-being. Prosecutors said Watkins was guilty by "culpable negligence," essentially defined as a reckless disregard for Michael's safety. Prosecutors had to show Watkins could have reasonably known her actions would lead to death of great bodily harm -- a burden Watkins' lawyer, James Ermacora, said prosecutors didn't meet.

"No one in their wildest dreams ... ever thought the result was going to be what it was," Ermacora said.

But prosecutors said Watkins admitted to investigators that she disagreed with wrapping in knotted blankets as a form of punishment. Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Russell also argued Watkins misled investigators on several occasions, lying about the hours leading up to Michael's death.

"She knew she was responsible for something, and she was going to cover up everything as well as she could," Russell said.

Watkins remained calm through closing arguments and the reading of the verdict, her daughter, Samantha McMullen, crying in the gallery. McMullen declined to comment after the verdict. On the stand Tuesday, she pinned the death on Trainor, saying she lost her son "due to stupidity."

[u2addict]

Thanks for the info, Honey.

Good riddance Granny from Hell.

[bermstalker]

pleading for him to quiet down so she could rest for 20 minutes.

Granny will have plenty of time to rest now.

[u2addict]

Granny will have plenty of time to rest now.

On a nice comfy pillow top cement slab, no doubt. Cement pillow too.

IDK, do inmates get pillows and blankets? I wouldn't know, I never asked the ex.

Maybe the itchy woolly ones.