Baby-Sitter to Stand Trial in Death of 14-Month-Old Boy

A North Hollywood baby-sitter accused of giving sick 14-month-old twins a mixture of obsolete prescription drugs that killed one of the boys was ordered Thursday to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter, drug and child neglect charges.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Shari Kreisler Silver said Melvine Kaiserauer, 42, was “grossly reckless and grossly negligent” when she gave the drugs to Christopher and Brandon Collins.

The Van Nuys brothers, who were staying at Kaiserauer’s home while their father did some tailoring work for her, became ill Feb. 20 after Kaiserauer gave them a mixture of prescription drugs and children’s Tylenol after noticing they were feverish, according to testimony in Thursday’s preliminary hearing.

Christopher later died of codeine and morphine poisoning, authorities said. A pathologist testified Thursday that the boy had 10 times the normal therapeutic level of codeine in his blood.

Brandon recovered after being hospitalized.

Kaiserauer, who remained free on $5,000 bail, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and two counts each of child neglect and administering a controlled substance to a minor.

Detective Tia Morris testified that when she began her investigation of the death at Kaiserauer’s house, she found a box containing nearly 100 bottles of prescription drugs with several different names on them.

Morris said that during an interview Kaiserauer admitted giving both boys a teaspoon each of a mixture of Tylenol and Phenergan, a drug used to treat allergies. Kaiserauer said she had made the mixture a few months earlier to treat another sick child.

The investigator said Kaiserauer also said she gave Christopher, who appeared to have trouble breathing, some Tepadral, a drug used to treat asthma, from a prescription bottle dated 1977. Kaiserauer said Christopher spit out the drug, Morris testified.

The boys’ 24-year-old father, Roger Collins, testified that on Feb. 19 he and the boys stayed overnight at Kaiserauer’s house. His wife had been killed in a traffic accident four months earlier, he said. He slept downstairs and did not see the boys, who slept upstairs with Kaiserauer, until the following morning.

He said Kaiserauer first brought Brandon downstairs. When he saw the boy was lethargic, he asked to see Christopher. When Kaiserauer brought the second boy down, he was unconscious.

“I was in shock,” Collins said. “I just screamed, ‘What did you give them?’ ”

Kaiserauer did not testify, but her attorney, Mitchell Jay Bruckner, said the numerous prescription drugs found in her home were from her job, delivering prescription drugs to shut-ins. She held on to the drugs after she was involved in an auto accident and could not deliver them, the attorney said.

Bruckner asked Silver to reduce the charges against Kaiserauer on the grounds the death was accidental.

“My client’s sole intention was to care for sick kids,” Bruckner said. “There is no question she made mistakes, but they were just that, mistakes in judgment.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth A. Loveman said that while he did not believe Kaiserauer intended to injure the boys, she was criminally negligent in giving them drugs.

“She is worse than a drug dealer,” Loveman said. “She killed this kid.”