MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — A judge is expected to decide whether a suburban Detroit couple whose 11-month-old daughter died after eating a morphine pill should continue to face child-abuse charges.
The Macomb Daily reports Macomb County prosecutors say 42-year-old Harold Murphy and 38-year-old Kimberly Murphy committed the “reckless act” of maintaining an extremely messy house that allowed their daughter, Trinity, to ingest the pill in October 2013.
They’re charged with second-degree child abuse, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The pill was for Trinity’s grandmother, who lived in the Sterling Heights house and earlier died of cancer. Attorneys for the Murphys told Macomb County Circuit Court Judge James Biernat Jr. on Wednesday that no one knows how the child got the pill.
Biernat is expected to announce his decision Nov. 19.