Background: A section of the 2200 block of Aiken Street in Baltimore, Maryland (Google Maps). Insets (from left to right): Bernice Byrd and Gerald Byrd (Baltimore Police Department).
A mother and father in Maryland will likely spend the rest of their lives in prison for starving their children before one of them died.
Bernice Byrd, 34, and Gerald Byrd, 36, have both been sentenced to life in prison with all but 60 years suspended, according to Baltimore City Circuit Court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The sentences came after they each pleaded guilty to first-degree child abuse resulting in death in connection with the death of 5-year-old Zona Byrd, as well as to first-degree child abuse. The defendants had faced murder charges before their plea agreement.
On Oct. 14, 2024, at a home on the 2200 block of Aiken Street in Baltimore, Maryland, someone called 911, saying a 5-year-old child was "unresponsive" and found "lying in a bed" on the home's second floor, "cold to the touch," the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office outlined in February.
The Baltimore Police Department arrived at the home and found Zona. She was pronounced dead at 12:50 p.m.
Police noted that three other children were in the home, and all were brought to nearby Johns Hopkins Medical Center to be treated. One of the kids was Zona's 6-year-old brother, and authorities said he "appeared emaciated and could barely stand or walk when he was discovered at the scene."
As for Zona, she "weighed only 17.5 pounds," an autopsy revealed, with the state's attorney's office noting that "[n]o evidence was found during their examination of any sort of physical trauma that could have resulted in her death." Like her brother, she "appeared severely emaciated and extremely malnourished," and the clothes she was wearing "were observed to be much too large for her, and detectives later reported that she had no muscle tone."
Police investigated the family's home, noticing that "all the kitchen cupboards were completely bare of any food." Though the freezer contained frozen meat, "the only item in the refrigerator was a salad." While the parents had kept "several nonperishable food items" on the second floor, those items were behind their bedroom door and closet, both of which were locked.
Investigators asked Bernice and Gerald Byrd when the last time was that Zona "was provided food and nourishment, but neither would take responsibility for feeding the child, and neither could account for when they last fed the victim," prosecutors said. "Detectives later discovered that one of the surviving children was seen going through garbage at their school in an attempt to find food."
The parents were arrested.
The three other children in the home who were brought to the hospital were given food there, "and doctors and detectives noted that they ate quickly and intently," the state's attorney's office said. The 6-year-old boy weighed just 35 pounds, and he was treated at the hospital until Oct. 26, 2024.
In court on Thursday, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana Middleton lamented the circumstances of the "heinous" case that she called one of the most disturbing of her career, per local CBS affiliate WJZ.
She also chastised social services for failing to protect Zona, reportedly pointing to how relatives were "accused of harassment for contacting the Department of Social Services' recorded line" to repeatedly report abuse.
Describing Bernice and Gerald Byrd as "two broken people," the judge said that "Your child's life was in your hands."