Woman sentenced in child's death

COLUMBIA — A woman convicted of suffocating a baby in her home day care 11 years ago has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, and prosecutors are trying to decide if they will try her in two other infant deaths.

The State newspaper of Columbia reports that Andrea Person didn't react Friday night as she was found guilty of homicide by child abuse in the 1998 death of 1-year-old Zachary Ulengchong.

The coroner originally decided the boy died of pneumonia, but investigators reviewed the case in 2007 after another baby Person was caring for in her Columbia home died under suspicious circumstances.

Person then confessed to killing Zachary, but her lawyers argued during the weeklong trial that she was bullied and intimidated into signing the false confession by Richland County sheriff's investigators.

Person told the officer she held her hand over Zachary's nose and mouth for 15 to 20 seconds because he was fussy and she wanted him to sleep.

"I should have chosen a different way to handle him. I should not have put my hand over his face. It was not my intent to kill him," Person wrote in her confession. "I'm tired of holding on to this. It feels good to say it to someone."

An expert in false confessions called by the defense pointed out that Person's statement included repeated apologies to the victim's family and incorrect details, which are often seen when people confess to something they did not do because they think they can leave if they say what police want to hear.

"Common sense to me makes me want to smack my head and say, 'What makes you think if you confess to a crime you can go home.' But (the interrogation) leads people to infer leniency," said Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

In her confession Person also said she was distracted at the time of the child's death because of her hysterectomy, but the surgery actually took place eight months later.

Prosecutors dismissed the testimony, pointing out that Person was two courses shy of a psychology degree and shouldn't have been vulnerable to making a false confession.

Jurors in the case weren't told about the other two homicide by child abuse counts against Person for the deaths of 4-month-old Elijah Brown in 2001 and 2-month-old Michael Harris Walker in 2007. The charges came after authorities became suspicious about Michael's death.

"We will meet with the other families in a couple of weeks and make a decision on how and when we are going to proceed on those," prosecutor John Meadors said after the trial.