On October 11 2020 at about 5 26 a.m during the height of the pandemic in many areas 29 year old chantavia Hayden showed up at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan with her seven-week-old son wrapped in a blanket his name was Amir Griffin the little boy was not breathing his skin was cold and blue and he appeared to be suffering from something that the hospital staff couldn’t cure him from rigor mortis little Amir had been dead for a few hours before he even was brought to the hospital chantavia Hayden was a mother of four from Warren

just a 19-mile drive north of Detroit she was a graduate of nearby Highland Park High School and for a Time worked as a line worker at the Dearborn Sausage Factory by all accounts amir’s father didn’t appear to be present in either chantavia or her son’s life of her children other than Amir she had a one-year-old daughter and two sons ages six and seven as such chantavia received assistance from the state of Michigan which will become important as our story progresses by now she was no longer working for the Sausage Factory and

relied on benefits in the four months preceding amir’s birth and subsequent death she received fifteen thousand dollars in unemployment compensation food stamps and cash assistance she had also received 16 cans of formula from the WIC program for those of you who were outside of the United States WIC is a program put on by the U.

S department of agriculture that aims to safeguard the health of low-income women infants and children up to age five who are at risk by providing nutritious Foods information on healthy eating and referrals to health care but why is this important well Amir was very malnourished now according to Dr Jennifer Noble who’s an emergency room physician at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan the bones are very prominent the skin is draping around the bones because there is no fat left the fat has been used despite amir’s appearance in

the fact that he was clearly cold and blue she and another doctor still conducted life-saving efforts on a whim that they could possibly help this poor baby boy but sadly he had been gone for far too long as such Amir was pronounced dead 13 minutes after arrival according to Dr Noble she spoke with shantavia briefly before life-saving efforts began and again after Amir was pronounced dead Dr Noble characterized chantavius saying she was very distraught she wasn’t able to answer questions clearly and she was

unable to provide a coherent explanation of what happened however what chantavia did tell Dr Noble did not correlate with a baby who had been dead for at least two to three hours she told her she had attempted to give him food a couple of hours before taking him to the hospital in her own vehicle it should be noted that shantavia never called an ambulance Dr Noble stated that the mother shared with her that Amir had been quiet all day and he had whined around 3 45 a.

m at that time she changed his diaper and attempted to feed him one hour prior to coming to the hospital she noticed he was not moving and his skin had changed color however she maintained that he was not dead that he was breathing weirdly and he would open his eyes according to Dr Noble Amir was cold his temperature was 91.

2 degrees which is well below the average range of an infant’s temper future of about 96.8 up to 102.2 she went on to state that this was only the second time in her entire career she had ever seen a child arrive at the hospital in such a malnourished condition however she did not know the cause of the malnutrition and that it could be due to a medical issue we’ll get into the rest of the story in just one minute please stay with us for the following ad it not only supports the show but it helps us support local charities in our area foreign this week’s episode has been brought to

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com the misery machine or dial pound law that’s pound 529 from your cell phone thanks and back to the episode according to ER nurse Katie Iles she was tasked with taking Amir to the morgue she arrived in amir’s room and found chantavia holding him in a blanket seated in a chair the mother was visibly upset Amir was placed on a bed so that she could toe tag him now upon viewing amir’s frail frame the nurse was shocked she said quote it took my breath away a little bit the baby was emaciated sunken cheeks you could see all of his ribs his eye sockets were

sunken in it was horrible end quote according to Deputy Wayne County Medical Examiner Dr Lee havlati the cause of death for seven week old Amir was the most graphic demonstration of starvation she had ever seen in her career and sadly I believe her she shared that amir’s case is among those that Stand Out Among her 8 000 autopsies spanning over 20 years in the fields stated quote CA cases are incredibly difficult for everybody these cases stay with you this is the most graphic demonstration of starvation I have ever

seen I knew as soon as I saw amir’s body it was a starvation case end quote she said the body was essentially skin and bone and there was no fat and there was very little muscle left on his extremities according to Dr havlati his body had first used fat and then consumed his muscles in an attempt to stay alive when she performed an autopsy on his body he had an empty stomach and bladder and he had no stools in his intestines she stated it had been at least a week since he had seen a meal if there was some meal given intermittently

to him there would have been some stool there was an adequate nutrition for several weeks she said medical intervention at the time or any time a few hours before his death could have saved his life tests showed no medical condition or disease was present to potentially cause a mirror not to properly absorb new nutrients according to Dr havlati there was nothing else abnormal about Amir it appeared that he had no medical reason to starve to death amir’s birth records indicated that he was a normal baby though he was small

and had a cocktail of drugs in his system apparently this wasn’t enough and they thought the drugs wouldn’t have permanently affected him so he was released from Ascension Saint John hospital after four days he weighed five and a half pounds at Birth which is towards the low end of the range for a newborn baby at his death he weighed 4.

7 pounds by seven weeks old Amir should have gained about two to four pounds according to the Mayo Clinic due to a mere State and suspicious death officers from the Warren Police Department began their investigation chantavia had been staying with her sister Warren Manor Apartments off to quinja Road north of Eight Mile Road to give her sister a break she and her children went to the Red Roof Inn in Dequindre in 11 Mile roads in Warren for the weekend of October 10th through the 11th according to evidence technician

warlocker who was on the scene at the hotel investigators found four empty baby bottles one empty and one full can of powdered infant formula and two diapers in the room he said that he could not determine whether the diapers were for Amir or shantavia’s one-year-old daughter to me that’s weird you can definitely tell the difference between a newborn diaper and diapers meant for toddlers even if you don’t have kids during her police interview chantavia repeatedly said that she fed her baby now after the questioning was over she

was alone in the interview room and she said quote I don’t know what the f to do I hurt my baby end quote now apparently chantavia didn’t have enough common sense to know that those rooms are fitted with both audio and video recording devices due to the medical examiner’s findings as well as evidence recovered at the Red Roof Inn chantavia Hayden was arrested and charged with second-degree homicide and second-degree CA in connection with her son’s death she was held at the county jail in lieu of a one million dollar Bond

during a pre-trial hearing shantavia appeared remotely via zoom in front of Judge James biernat Jr in Macomb County Circuit Court she told judge biernat she wanted to fire her core appointed attorney Randy rodnick rodnick who appeared in person for court noted he obtained a plea offer from Macomb prosecutors that would have resulted in a 10-year sentence for chantavia this is well below the expected sentencing guideline range for charges such as hers chantavia replied that she did not want to plead guilty guilt as she was

innocent she quote if you know plea so y’all can stop coming at me with a plea deal because I’m not accepting it I’m not pleading guilty to no murder because I did not harm my child period end quote she went on to state that she wanted a different attorney representing her at the trial after further discussion also involving assistant prosecutor Colleen Warden judge biernat said he was reluctantly agreeing to terminate attorney rodnick and have a County public defender take the case at trial assistant prosecutor

Molly zapatel told jurors that Amir went from a normal baby after birth to a malnourished child his entire brief life quote everything was fine with Amir except he didn’t have food he starved to death there is no other cause of death end quote assistant prosecutor zap Patel displayed two photographs of Amir on a big screen one from the hospital and one from his autopsy which shows his extremely malnourished condition she pointed out to the jury that Amir at the hospital was a chunky little baby and then pointed out what happened to him

seven weeks later assistant prosecutor zapatel asserted shantavia may not have intentionally tried to kill Emir but create a high risk of death or great bodily harm in which death was a likely result an element of second-degree homicide she speculated perhaps she was angry at amir’s father for not being involved with the baby although one of her three other children was also fathered by him should be noted that the other three children were described as very well fed according to the assistant prosecutor chantavia never took Amir to a doctor’s

visit and downplayed his condition to paramedics after she called 9-1-1 to her residence 10 days before amir’s death due to him choking up baby formula she went on to accuse the mother of lying to police when she said after the baby’s death that she fed him 12 hours before and had been feeding him three to four bottles of formula per day although that amount is still about half of what a baby needs to survive additionally she stated that chantavia lied to receive more government assistance than she was entitled to such as state unemployment

benefits and federal benefits under WIC the prosecutor said this demonstrated the mother’s lack of credibility assistant prosecutor zapatel speculated that chantavia may have spent some money on drugs as there was evidence she was a drug user and that Amir was born with drugs in his system during his closing argument Shantae avia’s new attorney Andrew hubs said that his client did not receive more benefits than she deserved and that she was a struggling Mother after amir’s death she was struggling with the loss of her child he asked

jurors to find her not guilty because the prosecution had not proven its case and so that she could move on with her life in the grieving process excuse me sir thankfully Judge James biernet Jr who presided over the more than one week trial rejected attorney hub’s request to allow the jury to consider manslaughter as a potential verdict however not taking the plea deal proved to be foolish on chantavia’s part as she was later found guilty and convicted on all charges on Thursday September 22nd 2022 the jury only delivered for two hours

according to assistant Macomb prosecutor Colleen Warden quote we are happy that the jury listened intently to all of the evidence and rendered a verdict that delivered Justice for baby Amir end quote on November 23 2022 chantavia Hayden was sentenced to 27 and a half to 50 years in prison I guess she should have taken that deal she’s currently serving her time at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti Michigan and her earliest release date is April 22nd 2048.

amir’s story like many of the stories of children that we cover has left us with a lot of questions if the little boy was born with a cocktail of drugs in his system why didn’t DHS get involved furthermore why was shantavia allowed to leave the hospital with him in addition 9-1-1 was dispatched your home on October 1st 10 days prior to amir’s death due to him throwing up the formula this would have been clear evidence that there was something wrong with this little baby he would have looked very sickly why didn’t the emergency Personnel take action although

we have a lot of love for Detroit and its residents their DHS system needs a lot of improvement when it comes to helping children like Amir and many other children whose cases we’ve discussed over the years something has got to be done to change that