Macon woman gets life in son's death

By ASSOCIATED PRESSPublished on: 02/10/06

MACON — A woman has been sentenced to life in prison in the death of her 3-year-old son.
A jury deliberated for about an hour Thursday before finding Linda Renae Brown, 32, guilty of two counts of felony murder in the death of Garry Brown.

The boy was being treated for head trauma at a hospital when he fell from his hospital bed, suffering a fatal head injury on Aug. 12, 2004.
Despite warnings that her son could die if he fell from the crib, Brown ignored instructions to keep the rails up and repeatedly let the rails down, hospital staff testified.
The defense tried to portray the death as an accident. But prosecutors said Brown delivered the initial blow that injured his brain, sending him to the hospital where she was negligent in his fall.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there was one person responsible for the death of little Garry Brown," Bibb County assistant district attorney Nancy Scott Malcor said in closing arguments. "And as hard as that is to fathom, that person is his mother."
But defense attorney Sara Roberts said her client had mental deficiencies and rarely showed emotion, but cared for her child.
"There's no proof of her doing any willful act at home," Roberts told jurors.