Charges dismissed for lack of evidence in Minneapolis infant's death case

A Hennepin County judge has dismissed charges against a woman in the death of 5-month-old baby, who died last fall while sleeping next to the woman.

In her 15-page ruling, district judge Nicole Engisch wrote that while prosecutors had alleged that Leann S. Farkarlun was intoxicated when she fell asleep next to the baby there was not enough evidence to find that Farkarlun could be charged with second-degree manslaughter.

"Viewing the complaint allegations as well as the additional information in the light most favorable to the State, as the court must do at this stage, the court finds that the State has not presented sufficient facts to present a jury question on whether Defendant caused the alleged victim's death," Engisch wrote, while adding, "these facts may well be sufficient to demonstrate probable cause that Defendant committed child endangerment."

According to the initial complaint:

Farkarlun told police that she was godmother to the girl, Egypt Randolph, and was caring for her while her mother was out of town.

She said she came home late after a night out drinking with friends on Oct. 31, and she got into bed with the baby and went to sleep. She awoke to use the bathroom and felt that one of Egypt's hands was cold and her "body was lifeless." She also saw blood coming from the baby's nose.

Farkarlun's teenage son was home at the time and called 911 and attempted to perform CPR on the baby before emergency responders arrived at the apartment. Officers located the girl, and she was taken by ambulance to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, where she died.

Test results determined that Farkarlun's blood alcohol content was 0.142%, above the legal limit to drive.

But, Farkarlun's public defender filed a motion to dismiss on the basis that the prosecution lacked probable cause to support the manslaughter charge. An autopsy, the defense argued, concluded that the infant's cause of death was undetermined, and furthermore found "no evidence of Defendant rolling onto the baby, nor any evidence of asphyxia consistent with the baby being pinned against or underneath Defendant or any other object."

And in a meeting with the defense, the medical examiner said he wasn't aware of the baby's prenatal history and didn't know the baby had been born prematurely before announcing his findings.

Farkarlun's case was one of several across the country in recent years involving parents or guardians being criminally charged in the sleep-related deaths of infants. It also comes amid a fraught debate around co-sleeping — or sharing a room or bed with a baby — which is common in many parts of the world, but controversial in some Western countries.

The Minnesota Health Department put out an advisory last year encouraging parents to sleep in the same room as their babies, but not to share beds. State officials said at the time that 45 of 51 infant deaths were sleep related in 2018, the last year for which reliable data were available.

An online obituary showed that a funeral for Egypt was held last November at True Vine Missionary Baptist Church in north Minneapolis.

Messages left for the county attorney's and public defender's office weren't immediately returned on Tuesday afternoon.

Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.