Retrial begins in SoCal baby's meth poisoning death (California)

CORONA – The retrial of a woman accused of killing her infant son with methamphetamine-laced breast milk began with a prosecutor telling jurors she knew her drug use could be lethal and the defense suggesting the woman's roommate may have been responsible for the death.
Amy Leanne Prien, 34, is accused of murdering 3-month-old Jacob Wesley Smith in January 2002. She was convicted of second-degree murder in 2003, but an appeals court overturned the conviction last September, citing flawed jury instructions from the trial judge.

The prosecution was believed to be the first of its kind in California.

In her opening statements Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Allison Nelson told jurors that Prien would often breast feed Jacob after smoking methamphetamine in her bedroom.

“There's no doubt the defendant is a meth addict and that she transmitted meth to her child through the method of breast milk,” Nelson said.

Prien's attorney, Stephen Yagman, told jurors there's no evidence tainted breast milk killed Jacob.

“This baby was weaned a long time before this occurred,” Yagman said. “The only one thing that matters is causation of death, and there's no evidence that breast milk caused that baby to die.”

He also suggested that Prien's then-roommate, Donald Fox, was dealing drugs from their home and sometimes packaged meth in baby bottle liners.

Fox was the first prosecution witness to testify Wednesday, saying he scolded Prien a couple of days before Jacob died for breast-feeding him while she was high on meth. Yagman in his cross examination, however, noted that Fox had testified during Prien's first trial that the incident occurred a month before Jacob's death.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060413-0159-ca-baby-methdeath.html