Bellingham dad said his actions didn’t lead to infant’s death. Here’s what the jury found
A Bellingham man was found guilty Wednesday of neglecting his infant son until he starved to death more than five years ago.
A jury unanimously found 28-year-old Cody James Shields guilty of second-degree manslaughter July 14 in Whatcom County Superior Court for the Dec. 8, 2015, death of his 3-month-old son, Lucian Mykael Shields.
“I’m relieved by the jury’s verdict and grateful that they spent the time necessary to find the truth,” Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey said in a prepared statement.
The Bellingham Herald has asked Shields’ defense attorney Carl Munson Jr. for comment on the verdict.
Munson asked Wednesday that Shields not be held in the Whatcom County Jail until his sentencing date, which has yet to be set. Munson said Shields has had more than five years to flee, has appeared for every court hearing and does not present a danger to the community.
Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Rob Olson had Shields taken into custody, because he said that is what the statute dictates, until a hearing could be held on the matter. The hearing has tentatively been scheduled for Friday morning.
Munson also said Shields intends to appeal the verdict.
Lucian’s mother, Brittany Shane Daniels, 27, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison in January 2020 for her son’s death. Daniels pleaded guilty in November 2019 to one count of second-degree manslaughter.
Daniels was given an agreed-upon exceptional sentence below the standard range in part for expected testimony against Shields during his trial. During her testimony, Daniels said the couple felt like the baby had “1,000” problems, and that Shields was his primary caregiver in the last few months of his life.
Daniels told the jury Lucian was hard to feed and had stomach issues. Messages between the couple read aloud in court during Shields’ trial showed the pair often complained about Lucian’s crying.
During opening statements, Richey said Shields’ actions amounted to negligence that resulted in Lucian’s death. At the time of Lucian’s death, Daniels was at work and had left the baby in Shields’ care, according to previous reporting in The Herald.
Munson, Shields’ defense attorney, had argued that it was not the father’s actions that led to the infant’s death, and that there may have been “some other undetected metabolic disorder” that kept the child from absorbing nutrients.
Lucian’s manner of death was listed as homicide and his cause of death was listed as undetermined, court records state. Lucian’s weight was 9 pounds and 7 ounces at death. He had gained about 17 ounces since birth, the records show.
Most babies gain about an ounce of weight daily during the first three months of life, according to kidshealth.org.
