Traci Carpenter listens during her pretrial hearing in Criminal Court Judge Don Poole’s court on Tuesday. Carpenter, who is charged with agggravated child neglect, is pregnant.The Hamilton County medical examiner is expected to testify today in a hearing for a 24-year-old woman whose 18-month-old daughter died under suspicious circumstances.
Traci Carpenter is charged with aggravated child neglect and faces a 15- to 25-year prison sentence if convicted. Prosecutors say Carpenter knew in April 2006 that her daughter Sierra Carpenter was being abused and failed to report it.
Carpenter and her boyfriend brought the child to the Dallas Bay Fire Department, seeking help when the girl stopped breathing. Sierra was taken to a local hospital and died two days later of what medical examiners deemed “blunt force trauma to the head” and other wounds.
In today’s hearing on motions to limit or exclude evidence, Medical Examiner Dr. Frank King will be questioned by prosecutors and defense attorneys about evidence in Sierra’s post-mortem medical examination. The hearing, held in Criminal Court, began Monday and continues today.
The trial for Carpenter, who is visibly pregnant, is set for Dec. 6.