Mom allegedly
admitted ‘ice’ useThe Kaneohe woman could go to prison
for 20 years in the death of her baby son
A Kaneohe woman, indicted on manslaughter charges in the death of her baby son, allegedly told a city medical examiner's investigator that "she'd smoked (crystal methamphetamine) three days prior to the birth of her (fifth) baby and also the morning of the birth of her child," according to transcripts of an Oahu grand jury on Oct. 9.
The charge against Tayshea Aiwohi, 31, stemmed from her ice use in the five days before and two days after the birth of her son, Treyson, at Kaiser Medical Center on July 15, 2001.
Aiwohi, whose four other children range in age from 4 to 12 years old, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Aiwohi's public defender, Todd Eddins, filed motions in early March arguing that the case, the first of its kind in Hawaii, should be dismissed.
Eddins, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, asked that the case be dismissed on grounds that insufficient or impermissible evidence was presented to the grand jury, the case violated the defendant's right to privacy, and the charges are unconstitutionally "vague and/or overbroad in nature."
Yesterday, deputy prosecutor Glenn Kim filed a 24-page motion arguing the case should go forward. The motion included grand jury transcripts.
A hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday before Circuit Judge Michael Town.
More than 50 health and human service groups and interested individuals signed a letter this week asking city prosecutor Peter Carlisle to drop the case. The letter argued that prosecuting pregnant women for abusing alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs would deter those women from seeking needed medical treatment for themselves and their unborn children.
Carlisle said he would not drop the case.
Part of the legal argument is whether Treyson Aiwohi was "a person" under state law when he was still in his mother's womb and she smoked ice. Although Aiwohi breast-fed, a deputy medical examiner testified before the grand jury that the amounts of ice found in the baby's system exceeded what he could have ingested during his two days of life and the levels likely came from her ice use while pregnant.
The issue is whether smoking ice and exposing a fetus to its effects is manslaughter in a case where the fetus is delivered and then dies of drugs he received as a fetus.
First Deputy Medical Examiner William W. Goodhue Jr. has testified that Treyson Aiwohi died from "the toxic effects of methamphetamine."
Eddins wrote, "The critical issue is whether an expectant mother's alleged conduct before the birth of her child can serve as the basis for a homicide prosecution."
Prosecutor Kim countered that when Treyson Aiwohi died two days after his birth he was "a person under applicable Hawaii law."
Kim argued that Aiwohi had had medical advice for four other babies, had undergone drug-abuse treatment and counseling and that "in the few days right before giving birth to Treyson Aiwohi voluntarily binged on ice, thereby causing his death two days following his birth due to methamphetamine poisoning."