Duquesne mother pleads guilty to killing her young son

A woman who initially blamed her three-year-old daughter for the killing of her baby took responsibility for the murder on Wednesday.

Alisha Parker, 26, of Duquesne, pleaded guilty before Allegheny County Common Pleas Committee Judge Beth A. Lazzara to first-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated assault, simple assault and malicious damage to property.

As part of a negotiated plea, she will serve a prison sentence of 20 to 60 years.

According to the criminal complaint in the case, Duquesne police were called to Parker's home in the 300 block of Hemlock Alley at 1:57 a.m. on Jan. 7 because a baby was unresponsive.

When they arrived, they found that three-month-old Dai'von Means was not breathing.

The infant was taken to UPMC McKeesport, where he was pronounced dead at 7:30 a.m.

An autopsy found that Dai'von died of blunt force trauma to the head. He had bruising, a skull fracture and bleeding near the brain, the indictment said.

According to investigators, during their first conversation, Parker tried to blame her three-year-old daughter for the boy's death.

“If anything unusual happened, it was my three-year-old child, and you need to do something about it,” Parker told investigators, according to the complaint. “She's the last person to see him alive, and she was jealous and doing little things. Judge that girl.”

However, the coroner concluded that the injuries could not have been caused by a three-year-old, but by an adult.

Investigators said they spoke to Parker's cousin, who had lived in the house.

The woman, whose name was not included in the complaint, told police she went to work that afternoon and called Parker at 11:22 p.m.

Dai'von was crying in the background, the cousin said, describing the sound as “angry, hungry crying.”

Parker told her cousin that the children were fine, police said.

When the cousin came home that night, she told detectives that Parker had been drunk.

The cousin went to check on her own child, who was sleeping. She returned to Parker and drank tequila with her.

The cousin eventually asked Parker where Dai'von was, but Parker didn't answer.

The woman then went to check on the baby and found that it was unresponsive.

According to police, Parker's blood alcohol level was 0.187 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving.

Investigators later found injuries to Parker's three-year-old daughter, including abrasions on her head, redness and swelling, as well as injuries to her back, abdomen and leg.

A doctor concluded that the injuries could have been caused by blunt force trauma.

“The lack of a plausible history of injury is particularly concerning because these injuries would have been immediately apparent to a prudent caregiver,” the doctor wrote in his report.

During Wednesday's hearing, Parker's stepmother, Deborah Parker, spoke briefly on behalf of the defendant.

“I love her and will do my best to raise her two daughters,” she said.

Defense attorney Lisle Weaver told Lazzara that his client was remorseful and immediately agreed to plead guilty in the case.

On the day Dai'von died, Parker checked himself into UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.

She has since been diagnosed with postpartum depression and PTSD, Weaver said.

The defendant said she was sorry for what had happened to her children.

“I'm going to use the time I'm away to collect myself. When I get out, I'll be a different person,” Parker said.