Mail carrier finds toddler lifeless at DC home, feds say. Now, mom is convicted
A woman who “found” her toddler “unresponsive” in her playpen and alerted a mail carrier outside her Washington, D.C., apartment has been convicted of first-degree murder in her daughter’s death, federal prosecutors said.
After the mail carrier first called 911 the afternoon of March 21, 2017, the carrier followed Faneshia Scott into her home and saw 16-month-old Rhythm Fields “on the couch, lifeless,” according to prosecutors. They described Rhythm as “cold,” and “stiff” with “fixed” eyes.
When a former firefighter arrived at the apartment to perform CPR on Rhythym, it was “immediately” clear that she was dead, prosecutors said.
Nearly a year later, Rhythym’s death was ruled a homicide by the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
She died of several blunt force injures, including “contusions and abrasions of the head, neck, torso, and extremities,” a brain hemorrhage, sudden oxygen deprivation and 23 broken ribs, prosecutors said.
Now, a D.C. Superior Court jury has found Scott, 39, guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree cruelty to children and second-degree cruelty to children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a June 11 news release.
The jury returned guilty verdicts against Scott on June 11 after the trial, which began May 19 and went on for two weeks, court records show.
Scott’s defense attorneys, Megan Allburn and Steven R. Kiersh, didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment June 12.
The afternoon Rhythm was found dead, the girl’s godmother, who is Scott’s friend, brought her 8-year-old child to Scott’s apartment for a visit at about 2:45 p.m., according to prosecutors.
Her friend’s child “asked to play with Rhythm,” leading Scott to check on her daughter who wasn’t moving in her playpen, prosecutors said.
After 911 was called, Scott told first responders — to their surprise — that she hadn’t interacted with Rhythm for nearly 6 hours, since about 9:00 a.m. that day, according to prosecutors.
Rhythm’s godmother, considered Scott’s best friend, testified June 5 during the jury trial, D.C. Witness reported.
“I love her kids,” the woman said of Scott’s three children, including Rhythm and her older siblings, who were 2- and 4-years-old when Rhythm died, according to the outlet.
Scott had also been accused of physical abuse against her two other children, the outlet reported.
In the courtroom, Scott’s friend said she had seen Scott act neglectful and violent toward her children, including one incident when Scott shook her son and beat him with a belt after he opened the friend’s fridge, D.C. Witness reported.
The friend said Rhythm’s death has “been haunting (her) for years,” according to the outlet.
Anthony Fields, Scott’s former boyfriend and the father of her three children, told The Washington Post in 2018, that Rhythm was “really playful’ and that “everybody loved her.”
“She was a ‘Daddy’s Girl,’” Fields said in an interview with the newspaper. “She would sit on my chest and she’d just laugh and play with my nose.”
While speaking with The Washington Post, he recalled previously telling Scott “‘make sure you take care of my kids.’”
“I never thought nothing of it until I got the phone call that Rhythm was dead,” Fields said in 2018.
Scott is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on August 29, records show.
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