Grandmother, boyfriend charged in toddler’s death
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By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: July 19, 2008
Police arrested the grandmother of a 1-year-old who died Wednesday at the Medical University of South Carolina after being airlifted from a Conway hospital Monday night.
On Friday, Horry County investigators detained and questioned 37-year-old Julia Shawnette Gorman, along with her boyfriend, 30-year-old Robert Andrew Palmer, in connection with the child’s death.
Friday afternoon, investigators charged Gorman with a homicide by child abuse charge, which carries a mandatory 20 years in prison up to a life sentence and Palmer faces unlawful neglect charges in connection to the baby’s death.
Investigators took the couple to the M.L. Brown Building in Conway for questioning Friday morning, then booked the couple into the J. Reuben Long Detention Center around noon.
The couple lives in the Galivants Ferry area, according to booking reports.
County investigator David Weaver, the lead detective on the child abuse case, served the pair with their warrants Friday afternoon.
The warrants state that Gorman inflicted the deadly injuries to her 17-month-old grandson, and that Palmer failed to report the incident and also failed to get medical attention for the child.
Police think the injuries happened sometime between July 11 and July 14 at the couple’s home on Highway 129 near Aynor.
Medics flew the child from the Conway Medical Center late Monday night after Gorman and Palmer took the baby to the hospital, according to a county police report.
An autopsy is set for Saturday to determine the exact cause of death, according to Edge.
In a criminal record check on Gorman and Palmer, News13 found that the state Highway Patrol charged Gorman with failing to restrain a child in a vehicle and ticketed her for not wearing seatbelt in late January.
Gorman pleaded guilty to the charges on Feb. 08, 2008in Conway, according to county records.
Palmer had several traffic offenses, but the county records on Palmer showed no prior criminal charges against him.
The baby’s mother is living in Arizona, and the child’s father, Richard Grimes, is living in Virginia, according to family members.
The father placed the emergency call to Horry County dispatch Monday night from Virginia, according to the police report.
We do not know the custody status of the baby at the time of the incident on July 14.
You can count on News13 to continue to update this story as details become available.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( momof1 ) on July 30, 2008 at 7:29 pm
All I can say is grandparents is supose to our safety net,we would go to our grandparents when we couldn’t go anywhere else. Prayers go out to the family. My grandparents passed away along time ago, but when they were alive they we our safety net.
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Posted by ( HeatherAnn ) on July 29, 2008 at 12:36 am
I just read through all this and am stunned beyond belief. I don’t get where all this heartless attitude comes from. Tossing around blame onto a mother who just lost her child by the hands of someone she trusted. This bashing on the mother of this poor child is just disgusting.Every person in this world has made mistakes in their past. This young lady has her own past to regret and learn from and for anyone to slap that past in her face during her time of immence need for support is just a heartless individual who needs to look back into their own lives and shut the hell up unless they have lived sinless! I don’t know Ces but bottom line is you all need to pray for her and the father of this baby. May God grant them courage and comfort in this tragic time they are and will endure for years to come.I hope people here will open their hearts and those who don’t have them should just cruise the net on some other site to fill their time.
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Posted by ( HeatherAnn ) on July 26, 2008 at 2:18 am
i have been keeping up with this story very closley as i too know both ces and aydain from here in arizona. one thing that deeply bothers me is all the comments being made about ces as a mother. beeing a young mother is very difficult and though. she may have partied a lot she still loved and continues to love her baby boy with all her heart. every mother makes a mistake somewhere…hers were at the begining. she is not the same person she was when she first had him. she has grown into a great person and mother to her son. i know that if ces thought leaving aydain at her mothers house would have caused this she woulod never have let him stay, but she truely believed he was ok there. as said by another reader she was able to see her mother interact with him for a while before he was there alone with her and saw no problems.
this is not an area to base on her as a person or as a mother. she has done a great job with aydain, and this is a horrible tradgedy that is causing her the most pain she will ever feel in her life. so before any responds to this think about how you would feel if you lost your only child. would you want to read about people degrading your judgement? or would you rather read about people knowing they are there for you? have a heart, put yourself in her shoes. instead of critisizing or degrading her, be there for her. this is the time when she will need all the love and support.
ces, i love you and am here for you no matter what.
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Posted by ( StopChildAbuse ) on July 25, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I will tell you what, either way this innocent little boy has been killed in a way that no child should be, he was 17 months old and could not have done anything that was worth this kind of treatmeant, the matter of the fact is they will find out and figure out who all was involved in this sad sad situation.
Lets not forget this little angel and his family in Az that loves him with all their hearts and is going through a tough time right now with this loss. Lets all pray for the family and little Aydain. Justice will be served to ALL involved.
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Posted by ( jeska6584 ) on July 24, 2008 at 11:30 am
To:news#1 and everyone…
I said that she saw interaction between them…meaning she was there for a while before she left him with her mother and had a chance to see them interact well together. It’s not like she wasn’t coming back for him. There is no problem leaving your kid with your mom, and like Big John said Julie has never really been a “hitter”....Yes it may have been poor judgement to leave him there but IT’S HER MOM, regardless of anything else, you are suppossed to be able to trust your mom. You don’t go around suspecting everyone is capable of murdering your child. Number on your mom, She should have been able to trust that her mom would keep her son safe….I don’t know when he was diagnosed with HFMD, but that is the main reason she left him there and didn’t make him fly. Richard made that 911 call when Aydain was already in the hospital. Julie called her mom after bringing him in, and then she notified everyone….Why is it a crime for a mom to take a lil break? Have a little time away? Moms need a break once in a while, so I think the issue is not why she left. The issue is what happened? No-one knows that yet, regardless of what the police said Julie “admitted” to…..niether one of them has said what exactly happened, and we will just have to wait until court. I will continue to defend Ces here, she did nothing wrong, I know Julie may not be anyones first choice for babysitter, but she is Ces’ mom. You are suppossed to be able to trust you own mother. You know and all this unhelpful critasism makes it even harder to accept the fact that a lil boy was taken, no-one who needs to can even grieve fully until all this legal who done-it crap is over…..Who did it is being held responsible, Ces will forever know that leaving her child there ultimatly ended in a loss, and that is alot for someone to deal with especially an 18 year old. She was just pushed into a harsh reality. So maybe people can be a little more respectful towards her…..She is a mother who just lost her baby.
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Posted by ( news#1 ) on July 24, 2008 at 9:28 am
TO: jeska6584
Im not at all saying Ces is responsible for his death but it i find it very poor judgement that she would leave him there. WHy was Ces going to “see the interaction” between the two of them? Thought he was only there while they went out of town? oh or was it he couldnt go home because he was sick? everyone says different things. From my understanding the initial reason he supposedly couldnt go home was an ear infection. either way, ear infection OR HFMD is no reason you couldnt take your child home. Not for me anyways. and besides that, hadnt he just been diagnosed with HFMD? How long was he really there anyways? And when the father made the 911 call, how did he already know Aydain had a skull fracture? Did Julie tell him what happened???
I think Julie is really wrong in this case. Unless everyone is hiding something. but from evidence so far, shes admitted to it and she deserved the worst possible punishment for what has happened regardless of why Ces left him, or if she liked to party, or didnt care where he was staying. IT was still her child and im sure she loves him and always will.
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Posted by ( jeska6584 ) on July 23, 2008 at 9:20 pm
“Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a fairly common viral illness in children.“ Was the virus Aydain had…..Yes, maybe she shouldn’t have left him with her, but nonetheless she did. I don’t think she should be in any way looked down upon for that. She is her mother and they were working on their relationship. Ces had been their to see the interaction between Julie and Aydain. Plus, Ces has a child and is 18 so how was an option foster care? that doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know why Ces’ supposid view of her child has anything to do with this…Is she in jail? Did she do anything wrong? Except leaving her child with her own mother. How is this helping, she is grieving, and she did NOT harm that lil boy… sooo can we please STOP airing Ces’ dirty laundry to the world? Please…..Or are you to heartless to care about her? We need to be saying WTF is wrong with Julie and this guy…..One of them did it and the other knew…If she is protecting him that is dumb, because if she is, she is protecting the person who murdered her grandson. And if she feels that way there is something VERY very wrong there. If it was Robert, Julie should have done something sooner.
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Posted by ( Big John ) on July 23, 2008 at 11:48 am
A couple of facts:
The baby’s mother was never in formal foster care. She was a very difficult child and has some serious mental problems. She did go to live with her grandparents for a number of years but as a teen became impossible to handle and was either to be sent back to her mother or be put into foster care. Her mother took her back because she didn’t want her in foster care.
Doris is very correct in her statement regarding his mother’s view of him.
Julie now finds herself in a terrible position.
Is she protecting her boyfriend? I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but I can’t picture Julie doing that kind of injury to any child. She is a “Yeller” not a “Hitter” kind of person. Only God knows what really happened in this tragedy.
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Posted by ( news#1 ) on July 23, 2008 at 8:15 am
im not saying the grandmother isnt responsible b/c i wasnt there. I will say she is because she admitted to doing harm on the child but why would you leave your baby with a woman you were taken away from for child abuse and assume your baby would be ok. I love my mom very much and trust her with my life. BUT she has always been there for, never ever abused me in any kind of way but if she had and i was taken away from her, I certainly would not leave my child with her for months at a time. And theres too many conflicting stories on the news. why did they have legal guardianship just for the mom to go out of town but now the fathers 911 call says he hadnt seen the baby in over three months and the mother hadnt seen him in over a month. another news channel also said the child came to stay with Julia a few months ago but couldnt travel home because of an illness. Does anyone on here know what the illness was?
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Posted by ( jeska6584 ) on July 22, 2008 at 9:55 pm
To: doris
So because of these facts you claim he deserved to die? Or she is to blame? Fact of the matter is this is her mother is their blood. You would never assume that someone related would even do this. Regardless of anything…. people idealize their parents regardless of many flaws….she was his grandmother and I don’t know of any grandmother regardless of personal issues that would abuse their 17 month old grandson. And By the way Ces is an 18 year old pretty much single mom doing the best she could or knew how. Like you said she didn’t have the best mother figure…. So, Think about that one….She is not to blame. obviously anyone is capable of harming a small child or another human being, even people who are complety with out problems of any sort. Time and heartless criminals have shown that time and time again. What’s done is done and the only one to blame is who hurt that poor lil boy. They are the ones that did such a horrible act. And I hope they get what they deserve and then some.
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