How Could You? Hall of Shame-Kyra Zubah case UPDATED-Child Death

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Okmulgee, Oklahoma, Sharon Lee Whitecloud, 61, had a preliminary hearing on a first-degree manslaughter charge in the 2009 death of her 3 year old foster child, Kyra Zubah.

“Kyra died from blunt force trauma to her head the day after Whitecloud took her to a hospital, the state medical examiner’s office reported. Authorities allege Whitecloud shook, grabbed and pushed

Kyra, causing her to hit her head on a solid object. ”

Decision Postponed on Whether a Muscogee Creek tion Foster Mother Should Go on Trial in Foster Child’s Death
[Oklahoman 1/27/11 by Ann Kelley]

Update: “After about three hours of deliberations, an Okmulgee County jury found Sharon Whitecloud, 62, guilty” of manslaughter. She was acquitted of murder. She was sentenced to 4 years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

“Kyra Zubah was declared brain dead and taken off life support at a Tulsa hospital on Nov. 10, 2009. Whitecloud admitted in a police interview — a recording of which was played in court — that she repeatedly shook Kyra after waking late one night groggy from a sleeping pill. Whitecloud said she took the pill and went to sleep in a recliner, assuming that her four foster children, ages 5, 3, 2 and 7 months, as well as her 9-year-old grandson, would eventually go to bed. She said she awoke later to go to the bathroom and pulled the recliner’s foot rest down on top of Kyra, who was lying under it.

She said she might have been mad that the child had not gone to bed. She said she picked Kyra up and shook her several times. Each time, she said, she would let go and Kyra would fall and hit her head on a coffee table or the floor. “I didn’t mean to hurt her,” Whitecloud said between sobs. “I just lost it.”

After the verdict, Whitecloud’s attorney, Stephen Lee, said he thought several factors might have convinced the jury not to convict Whitecloud of murder. Among them was that Whitecloud’s grandson stated in a taped interview that he swung Kyra to the ground and caused her to hit her head.

District Judge Mike Claver did not allow the grandson to testify at the trial. Carol Willis of Edmond, Kyra’s previous foster grandmother, called the outcome of the trial “a travesty.” “The woman admitted her guilt, and the jury didn’t do their job. This just makes (Kyra’s death) worse,” she said.

According to a medical examiner’s report, police were told that Kyra had been roughhousing with other children in the house on Nov. 7 and fell and hit her head. Whitecloud’s sister, Pam Palmer, said during the trial that Whitecloud’s grandson is a “violent, angry child” with a history of attacking other children. Palmer said the boy has told family members that he caused the death. Whitecloud’s admission that she shook Kyra came after numerous attempts investigators made to get her to tell them what caused the child’s severe injuries. When questioned by the first detective in the taped interview, Whitecloud repeatedly denied injuring the child. When the detective showed her pictures he had taken when Kyra was in the hospital, she said she didn’t know how the child had suffered so many bruises.

The autopsy report indicates that Kyra had multiple contusions and abrasions on her torso, arms and legs along with numerous blunt-force injuries to her head that caused bleeding in her brain. The recording reveals that Whitecloud continued to deny knowing anything about the child’s injuries until the detective left the room and her pastor came in. “I didn’t mean to hurt her,” she told her pastor. She said she was scared of “going to jail for 50 years.”

Kyra had been placed in the foster care of Willis’ daughter, a non-Indian, by the state Department of Human Services when she was 11 weeks old because of alleged abuse.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s child welfare program took physical custody of Kyra in July 2009. Under the Indian Child Welfare Act, tribal child welfare programs have jurisdiction in cases in which a tribal member is involved, and placement in an Indian foster home is preferred over a non-Indian foster home. ”
Okmulgee woman found guilty of manslaughter, acquitted of murder of foster child [Tulsa World 11/2/11 by Susan Hylton]

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