A former Detroit EMT is facing charges after she allegedly delayed responding to a call to help an infant who later died in May of 2015.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says Ann Marie Thomas, 45, received a call to help an 8-month-old baby who was having trouble breathing on May 30 in 2015 in the 19900 block of Glastonbury. She's accused of delaying her response time, even stopping her vehicle and parking less than a mile away from the location.
Another EMT unit had to be sent to the location and the child died later that day, according to a statement from the prosecutor's office.
Thomas was fired and she is now facing a misdemeanor charge of Willful Neglect of Duty which carries a penalty of up to a year in in jail.
The listed cause of death for eight-month-old I'Nayah Wright-Trussell is smothering. And her mother, Janee Wright-Trussell, who called 911 is actually charged with murdering the infant.
Wright-Trussell's family says they always thought the EMT should be charged in the case, but they never expected her mother to be accused of murder and child abuse.
"I didn't kill my child," Janee Wright-Trussell told 7 Action News.
"The child did not die until some ten hours later," Wright-Trussell's defense attorney Wyatt Harris wrote in court records. "There was no testimony that someone who is smothered can live after the smothering. There was no testimony that the cause of death was anything other than smothering. Therefore, the testimony of the medical examiner created an impossible situation that demonstrates Janee Wright-Trussell did not commit the crimes for which she was bound over."
Wright-Trussell goes on trial in June.
The former EMT is due back in court next week.
