- ST. CHARLES, Missouri (CNN) -- A man accused of injecting his 11-month-old
son with HIV-tainted blood in order to avoid paying child support was convicted
Saturday of first-degree assault.
-
- Sentencing for Brian Stewart, 32, of
Columbia, Illinois, was set for Jan. 8.
-
- Jurors returned their verdict against
Stewart after deliberating for about eight hours. They recommended life
in prison. If his son dies, Stewart could be charged with first-degree
murder.
-
- The boy's mother, identified only as
Jennifer to protect the boy's identity, wept briefly after the verdict
was read.
-
- Prosecutors used circumstantial evidence
to convince the jury that Stewart, a phlebotomist whose job it was to draw
blood from hospital patients, stole HIV-infected blood from his workplace
and injected it into the boy during a hospital visit in 1992.
-
- The boy, now 7, has AIDS. Prosecutor
Ross Buehler called the injection a "death sentence" for the
child.
-
- "He had the knowledge and training
to commit this offense," Buehler said during closing arguments. "And
more importantly, had the motive."
-
- Prosecutors claimed Stewart did it to
avoid child support payments.
-
- Defense attorney Joe Murphy denied the
allegations, saying the prosecution presented no actual proof that Stewart
injected his son.
-
- "A tragedy is not a crime and theories
are not facts," Murphy said. "Mom made an allegation and everyone
ran with it."
-
- Stewart is expected to appeal the conviction.
-
-
-
- Miscarriage Of Justice
- From Timothy Burgener <timburgener@usa.net
- 12-8-98
-
- Jeff,
-
- Have you been following this story much? There is quite
a lot of circumstantial evidence to support that Brian did NOT inject his
son. More than the evidence to support his conviction. My neighbor, and
best friend of 10 years, grew up with Brian Stewart. He even worked with
him at the hospital where this injection supposedly occurred. He also
said there is no way he would believe that Brian would do this to any kid.
-
- As for the person who said they saw him near the kid's
room that day, how in the world would they remember? What were you doing
on Oct 15th, 1995, at 10:10am? Who did you see in your office? Who did
you eat lunch with? What did you have for lunch? Give me a break.
-
- In fact, the house where the child lived with his mother
was frequented by IV drug users. A day care worker and a family friend
were convicted child molesters. The mother claims that he threatened to
inject the child with HIV to get out of making child support payments.
We convict a man with he-said-she-said evidence??? Of course she is going
to say that. Besides, why choose a method of murder that would take years,
when the goal is to get out of paying child support NOW.
-
- The circumstantial evidence certainly is suspicious,
but in no way conclusive! Evidence, not theory, is what should convict
a man.
-
- -Tim
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