CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a negligent homicide conviction for a woman whose mother died days after being found in her own urine and feces on the floor of her mobile home.
Authorities said Nancy Parker, 75, of Exeter, fell and remained on the floor for five days in February 2016 before her daughter, who lived with her, called the fire department for help. Parker was unable to get up and her daughter and granddaughter said they were unable to lift her. Parker died three days after firefighters brought her to a hospital.
In addition to negligent homicide, Parker’s daughter, Katherine Saintil-Brown, was convicted of criminal neglect of an elderly adult and failure to report adult abuse. She was sentenced to two to four years in prison last year.
Saintil-Brown’s appeal said the evidence was insufficient for the jury to have convicted her of the charges. The court disagreed. It also found that while the judge erroneously instructed the jury on the criminal neglect charge, a reversal of the conviction wasn’t required.
“Here, there was no evidence that the defendant was unable to call the fire department for help sooner than the fifth day after the victim fell,” the court wrote. “Indeed, the evidence was overwhelming that the defendant could have called for help earlier, but simply chose not to do so.”
Saintil-Brown’s daughter, Meritel Saintil, received a similar sentence. She is appealing her convictions.
Hospital staff testified Parker was covered in dried stool and had rotting flesh on her thigh when they examined her. Parker had an advanced bacterial infection, a doctor determined.
Saintil-Brown’s lawyer said Parker had issues with poor hygiene going back to the 1990s and refused help. After Parker’s husband died in 2012, she stopped taking showers and didn’t clean her home, the court noted in the case background.
“At one point, her sink was so clogged with food that mice built nests in it,” the court wrote. The background also noted Parker was morbidly obese and used a walker.
During the trial, both sides agreed Parker told her daughter and granddaughter not to call 911 while she was on the floor, The Portsmouth Herald had reported .
At her sentencing, Saintil-Brown’s lawyers described a “cycle of abuse” she had suffered her entire life, starting with her parents, and then continuing on in partners. They said her role in her mother’s death was a continuation of decision-making influenced by trauma.
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