By TIFFANY TAN/VTDIGGER
A former child-care provider in Rutland was found guilty Friday of causing a child’s death by giving the infant a sedative, which the defendant denied doing when she took the stand earlier that day.
A Rutland County jury found Stacey Vaillancourt guilty of both manslaughter and child cruelty resulting in the death of 6-month-old Harper Rose Briar in 2019. She faces up to 25 years in prison at her sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.
Vaillancourt, 58, remains free on a $50,000 unsecured appearance bond, which she would be required to pay if she fails to appear in court.
The jury announced its verdict around 7:30 p.m. Friday, the last day of Vaillancourt’s five-day trial and about four hours after jurors began deliberating.
The state sought to prove that Vaillancourt had fatally sedated Harper — who was described by witnesses as having difficulty sleeping for long periods — on Jan. 24, 2019, the baby’s third day at her in-home child-care program.
Dr. Elizabeth Bundock, Vermont’s chief medical examiner, ruled that the child died of intoxication from diphenhydramine, an antihistamine that has sedative effects and is the active ingredient in medication such as Benadryl. The child had not been prescribed this type of medication.
The chief prosecutor, Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan, said Harper had been healthy and active up until she was dropped off with Vaillancourt around 8 a.m. on Jan. 24. He said the baby was solely in Vaillancourt’s care until around 3 p.m., when emergency responders were called after Vaillancourt found that the baby was not breathing. Harper was pronounced dead at the local hospital shortly after 4 p.m.
“For hours and hours, Harper was only in the care of the defendant,” Sullivan told jurors in his closing arguments Friday. He said Dr. Bundock had considered, and ruled out, other potential causes of death, such as external trauma and infectious diseases.
Defense lawyers, on the other hand, argued that someone else could have fatally medicated the child before she arrived at Vaillancourt’s home. Lead defense attorney Robert McClallen said investigators never recovered any medicine with diphenhydramine from Vaillancourt. He said the drug was only found in the baby’s milk bottle, which her parents had provided Vaillancourt.
The defense’s expert witness, Scott Lukas, who specializes in pharmacology and toxicology, said the level of diphenhydramine found in Harper’s blood meant she was given multiple doses of the medication 24-36 hours before her death.
If the child had received only one toxic dose of diphenhydramine, her blood would have reflected a significantly higher concentration of the drug, said Lukas, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of McLean Hospital’s Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory.
During his closing statements, Sullivan said, “Even if the assumption about multiple doses is true, there’s certainly hours and hours and hours on the 24th where the defendant had the opportunity to provide multiple doses to Harper.”
In her hourlong testimony, Vaillancourt acknowledged that the baby had some difficulty going to sleep but denied ever giving her a sedative. “Never,” Vaillancourt said when defense attorney McClallen asked if she’d ever given the infant any food or medication outside what her parents provided.
In the nearly 26 years she ran her state-licensed child-care program, Vaillancourt said, she’d never been disciplined by regulators, though she admitted to putting a blanket on Harper’s legs knowing there was a policy that prohibited child-care providers from putting blankets on infants.
Sullivan asked Vaillancourt about several earlier incidents in which she received notices of violation, such as taking in more children than the maximum her license allowed and leaving children in the care of her teenage daughter. Vaillancourt said she couldn’t remember most of the incidents.
When the jury foreperson announced the first “guilty” verdict — to the charge of manslaughter — some people in the courtroom gallery and those watching the proceedings online erupted into cheers. This led Judge Cortland Corsones to warn spectators to maintain silence. “If I hear any more noise, I will clear the courtroom,” he said.
Vaillancourt and her attorneys have 14 days to file an appeal.
