The prosecution today in the trial of Raelyn Balfour, 36, called witnesses who described a woman who excelled in her job as a transportation coordinator at the Judge Advocate General’s School, was stressed out from the demands of the job and sleep deprived from helping out a friend the night before, to prove its case that Balfour was guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her nine-month-old son, Bryce, whom Balfour forgot to drop off at the babysitter’s March 30, 2006. The infant was left in the backseat of her Honda Pilot all day in the JAG School parking lot.
Whitney Huff, Bryce’s babysitter, was in court with her own attorney, Bud Treakle, and testified that she’d hired him on the advice of Balfour, and that Balfour’s sister paid for his services.
Huff had expected Bryce that March 30, a Friday morning, and when he didn’t arrive, she’d called Balfour on her personal cell phone around 9:45am. Balfour returned the call at 3:11pm and left a message. Huff spoke to Balfour around 4pm, and says Balfour told her, “What do you mean? No, you’ve got him. Oh my god.”
Detective David Roach with the University Police interviewed Balfour at the UVA Medical Center shortly after the staff there was unable to resuscitate the child. He read the sobbing mother her Miranda rights before taping her statement that she’d left the child in the car. He also denied telling three witnesses that he was going to charge Balfour because he had a “confession.”
Roach said he had multiple meetings with the Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Office before taking out a warrant for Balfour’s arrest April 5, the same day she buried her child. Balfour turned herself in April 6.
A coworker at the JAG School testified that Balfour had arrived at March 30 distracted by a call from the family member that she’d received on the way in to work.
“Mrs. Balfour had a lot of responsibility,” said her boss, Major Kevin Anderson. “Stressed out is the best way to describe it.” He’d discussed time management with Balfour, who often arrived at work early and stayed late, and used her comp time to take Bryce to doctor appointments. He also noted that in her performance review, Balfour received the highest ratings.
The woman Balfour had helped out by babysitting the night before Bryce died, Erika Conely, was called to show, said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Elizabeth Killeen, “Balfour’s tendency to overextend herself.”
Conely, who admitted she was no longer a friend and had called Balfour a “baby killer,” said she’d called three other people on March 29 to looking for a babysitter so she could take her sick dog to the vet before calling Balfour, who agreed to stay with Conely’s daughter.
According to Conely, Balfour had a beer or two while she was babysitting, and had asked Conely not to mention that to the police.
Medical examiner Kevin Whaley performed the autopsy on Bryce, and said the baby most likely died within the first half of the day, and that when the temperature is in the mid 50s to lower 70s, a car parked on asphalt “is going to reach 115 degrees in 30 to 45 minutes.” The high on March 30 was 66 degrees.
Jarrett Balfour, who was called as a prosecution witness yesterday, flew in from Iraq last week. “I came here to support my wife,” he said.
On March 30, Jarrett had dressed Bryce, who’d had a cold and awakened around 3am. Normally Bryce rode in a carseat behind the passenger seat in the Honda Pilot, but because of problems with a new carseat, that morning, he put Bryce in the car behind Raelyn’s driver’s seat.
“He seemed tired,” Jarrett Balfour remembered about his son.
– with additional reporting by Laura Burns
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Charlottesville’s #1 passenger rail promoter was hoping that Amtrak would take the idea of a daily train to Washington and roll with it. But Amtrak went further than Meredith Richards was expecting. The quasi-public passenger rail company released a report Tuesday signaling its desire to add a new daily train that would roll not just to Washington but all the way to New York. And back.
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