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Mother accused of starving newborn gets plea offer

JERSEY SHORE — The mother accused of starving her newborn son and denying him necessary medical care has been offered a plea agreement that would result in a county prison sentence.

The offer Wednesday resulted in Marissa Lynn Smith, 22, waiving her preliminary hearing on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

The plea offer is for a sentence of 121/2 months to two years minus a day.

The infant’s father, Justin Ray Lawrence, 31, waived his preliminary hearing April 4 after receiving an offer of a prison sentence of nine months to two years minus a day plus two years probation.

Lycoming County Chief Detective William Weber explained the reason Smith’s offer contained a longer minimum sentence. He said that in 2013 she was held responsible as a juvenile for fracturing the skull of a 4-month-old.

The infant victim in the current case has been in the custody of county Children and Youth Services since Feb. 22 and is reported thriving.

Besides starving their son and denying him necessary medical care, Smith and Lawrence are accused of providing false information on how much food they were giving him.

In her opinion in which she ordered the baby removed from the two, Diane Turner, a county family court master, found food was withheld for a sufficient period of time, causing him to be underweight and his height to remain static.

The circumference of his head had not grown within normal limits, too, she said.

The child, born Dec. 21, was fed only approximately one-half of a sample can of formula during a period when he should have consumed two to three times that amount, Turner wrote.

Lawrence is accused of failing to take his son to Geisinger Medical Center near Danville, as he promised a doctor who was concerned about the toddler’s weight.

He remains jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail. Smith is eligible for supervised release but she remains in custody in lieu of $99,000 bail.

They are prohibited from have contact with their son if they are released.

Smith and Lawrence were living in Jersey Shore when he was born but had moved to Lewistown a short time before their arrest.

Starting at $3.69/week.

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