Baby-Sitter Shook Infant Who Died, Witness Says

A Canyon Country baby-sitter charged in the death of a 6-month-old boy told a neighbor that she shook the infant to stop him from crying, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing Monday.

Vickie Maas, 27, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder in the Jan. 8 death of David Allen Duncan and three counts of felony child endangerment involving injuries to two other infant boys in her care on June 24 and Aug. 17.

For a fee, Maas cared for David and several other children on weekdays in her home.

An autopsy showed that David died from brain swelling caused by severe shaking and a blow to the back of the head that may have occurred during the shaking, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer. Maas had been caring for David for only three days before he died, she said.

Wore Buttons

About 10 relatives and friends of the dead boy wore buttons to court showing a picture of David lying in his crib smiling.

“We came to see that justice was done,” said Beverly Roquebrune, one of the boy’s grandmothers.

Shon Debra Reed, one of Maas’ neighbors, testified before San Fernando Municipal Judge Malcolm H. Mackey that she administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation in vain to David after Maas called her Jan. 7 to tell her that the boy had stopped breathing. She said Maas also called her Jan. 8, the night Maas was arrested, and told her that she had shaken the boy because he was crying, but did not mean to hurt him.

Reed testified that Maas told her she was under a lot of pressure at the time but that she did not shake David any harder than she would her own 2-year-old daughter. Maas’ daughter is now in the custody of her husband’s parents, said Larry H. Layton, Maas’ attorney.

Parents of two infant boys testified that their sons also were injured while in Maas’ care. Nancy McNerney, of Acton, testified that her son, Nicholas, who was 6 months old at the time, came home from Maas’ house June 24 with a broken leg. She testified that Maas told her the boy had fallen off a couch.

But Dr. Robert Grant Allison testified that falling off a couch could not have caused Nicholas’ injuries because the distance between the floor and the couch was too short for the boy’s body to fall with enough force to break a limb.

The other parent, Catherine Hoyt, of Canyon Country, testified that when she arrived at Maas’ house Aug. 17 to pick up her son, Travis, who was then 6 months old, the infant had bruises on his back and “one of his ears was black” with bruises. She said Maas told her that the boy had been hit in the head with a swing.

Hoyt also testified that Travis once came home from Maas’ house with a bloody lip that she said the baby-sitter blamed on a sharp-edged toy. On another occasion, she testified, she found a handprint on his leg.

Hoyt testified that Maas told her she had grabbed the infant to keep him from falling off a couch while changing a diaper.

Dr. Lawrence Menzer, who treated the Hoyt boy Aug. 18, said Travis’ head injuries were inconsistent with being hit by a swing. He said the handprint on the boy’s leg was consistent with marks caused by slapping.

Hoyt testified that detectives told her there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Maas in the earlier incidents.

Maas is free on her own recognizance. The preliminary hearing resumes today.