Jury selection has begun in the case of a young mother accused of killing her 5-year-old son by poisoning him with salt.
Lacey Spears, of Scottsville, Kentucky, is charged with depraved murder and manslaughter in the death a year ago of Garnett-Paul Spears. The boy died in a Westchester hospital last year.
Prosecutors say the boy had been admitted to Westchester Medical Center on Jan. 19, 2014 with suspiciously high sodium levels. On Jan. 21, while his mother was still in the hospital room with him, a code bell went off and medical staff rushed to Garnett's room to find him unresponsive and barely breathing, with both pupils blown and pale-gray in color.
He was declared dead on Jan. 23.
All the while, Spears was keeping social media followers up to date. She made tens of thousands of entries during his lifetime, presenting herself as a supremely devoted mother.
Her postings, her Internet searches about sodium and Garnett's hospital records will be in evidence.
Spears' attorney previously asked the public to not rush to judgment in the case, but had offered no details in her defense.
About 90 potential jurors were assembled for the case.
