As we posted a few days ago, Tatiana Elena Fusari and Seth Michael Welch were recently charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of their daughter Mary.
Mary, who only lived to be 10 months old, was very skinny at the end of her life due to malnutrition and dehydration. Her parents did nothing about it, citing religious reasons for not taking her to a doctor. Presumably, they thought God would just magically take care of everything.
They were recently in Kent County Court in Michigan to hear the charges and potential sentences against them, and a video of their reactions made its way online.
Allow me to narrate.
Initially, when the judge begins reading the charges, Welch (left) and Fusari remain defiant.
Then Fusari (right) learns that the charges against them include murdering their own daughter. Welch can’t believe it.
Oh no! The judge says a guilty verdict could mean spending life in prison without parole… and Welch realizes God will not get him out of jail.
Is anyone else hearing this shit? Welch seems to ask as he looks around for sympathy.
Then the judge mentions the other charge: intentionally hurting the child. Fusari seems very disturbed by this, even though not taking your emaciated daughter to a doctor is literally a way of intentionally hurting her.
Finally, the judge explains that the penalty for the child abuse charge is also potential imprisonment. Suddenly, Welch tries to do the math in his head, not realizing two prison sentences can be served concurrently.
Here’s the whole video in all its glory:
As one Redditor noted, it appears that Fusari reacts to the charges against their child, as if she never meant to hurt her daughter, while Welch reacts to the potential punishments against them. That looks about right to me.
Still, I don’t have any sympathy for Fusari. How many months did she do nothing while her daughter starved right in front of her? She chose not to take care of the child. She chose not to see a doctor. Just because she didn’t mean for Mary to die doesn’t mean she’s not responsible for Mary’s death.
Welch, on the other hand, has been infuriating throughout this ordeal.
Welch has posted about Child Protective Services, a distrust of doctors and religious beliefs on Facebook. He called doctors “priesthoods of the medical cult” and spoke in one video post about refusing to get his children vaccinated.
“The righteous shall live by faith. It’s God who is sovereign over disease and those sorts of things and, of course, ultimately deaths,” he said.
God is “sovereign over disease,” says the man who saw an eye doctor for his glasses.
If they are indeed found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, it’s because they deserve it.
(Thanks to Brian for the link)
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