Baby-Sitter Found Guilty : Jury Rejects Murder, Rules Involuntary Manslaughter

A San Fernando Superior Court jury on Friday convicted a Canyon Country baby-sitter of involuntary manslaughter instead of second-degree murder in the shaking death of a baby in her care.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer had asked that Vickie R. Maas, 28, be convicted of the more serious charge.

“She got a big break in not being convicted of second-degree murder,” Davis-Springer said.

Maas testified that she “gently” shook 6-month-old David Allen Duncan on Jan. 6 because she panicked when he would not stop crying. The baby died 2 days later from swelling in his brain brought on by shaking, physicians said.

Maas wept quietly as the verdict was read. And the mother of the dead child burst into tears minutes later as she was hugged by Davis-Springer.

Judge Howard J. Schwab scheduled sentencing Jan. 9 and ordered Maas, who had been free on $10,000 bail, into custody. Davis-Springer said she will ask that Maas receive the maximum 6-year sentence.

Maas was also convicted of three counts of felony child abuse. One count was related to the death of the Duncan infant and the others to injuries received by two babies in Maas’ care in 1987. Nicholas McNerny, a 7-month-old, suffered a broken leg. Travis Hoyt, a 6-month-old, suffered bruises to his ear.

Maas could have been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison had she been convicted of second-degree murder.

After the verdict, several jurors said the panel was split during nearly all 18 hours of deliberation, which took place over 4 days. Ten favored a second-degree murder conviction, but two were not convinced that Maas knew she was shaking the baby hard enough to harm him, they said.

“We were deadlocked from the start,” said juror Palma Hobby, who favored a second-degree murder conviction.

“There was a lot of frustration,” said another juror, who spoke on condition that his name not be published. He said he favored the more serious charge.

The holdouts “were just not completely convinced that Mrs. Maas knew what she was doing at the time. . . ,” he said.

“We all agreed that something was wrong here, and that she had shaken the baby,” the juror said. “The law was explained to us that if you can’t completely convince all members of the greater charge, you go to the next lesser charge, which was manslaughter.”

Defense attorney Larry H. Layton had argued that Maas did not intend to hurt the baby when she shook him. He said other people have shaken crying babies.

Davis-Springer countered that the injuries to the McNerny and Hoyt babies should have demonstrated to Maas that she was capable of harming the Duncan boy.

David Duncan and his twin sister, Amanda, were born to Larry and Karen Duncan of Canyon Country on the couple’s fourth attempt at in-vitro fertilization. In that technique, conception takes place in a laboratory, and the fertilized egg is implanted in the mother’s womb.

The parents testified at the trial that they sought a baby-sitter--and eventually found Maas through a newspaper advertisement--because they needed to work to pay medical bills from their 4-year effort to have children.

The Duncans left the courtroom Friday without speaking to reporters. Later, in a telephone interview, Larry Duncan said: “I’m just very disappointed, and I think it definitely should have been second-degree murder.

“All the evidence was there for it, and the jury couldn’t sway everyone to come to that conclusion. . . ,” he said. “I guess I’ll have to live with that.”