Delivery death of decapitated baby was homicide: County

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Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr. (both pictured here) said Dr. Tracey St. Julian decapitated their son, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr., at Southern Regional Medical Center. (Screenshot: Atlanta News First; image of Ross and Taylor: Family handout)

Right: Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., both pictured, said Dr. Tracey St. Julian decapitated their son, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr., at Southern Regional Medical Center, left. (Screenshot: Atlanta News First; image of Ross and Taylor: Family handout)

The baby who was decapitated in a troubled delivery last year died of a homicide, the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office in Georgia announced on Tuesday.

Local police have been investigating the death of newborn Treveon Taylor Jr. since his death on July 10, 2023, at Southern Regional Hospital. Prosecutors have not announced charges in the case.

Last year, Treveon’s parents, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., sued the hospital, nurses and the doctor who was in charge, Tracey St. Julian.

The obstetrician “negligently applied excessive force on the baby’s head and neck during the attempted vaginal delivery,” causing decapitation, the plaintiffs’ legal team said in a statement.

They claim the health care providers failed to address the difficult, hourslong labor through adequate measures. For example, providers allegedly did not do a cesarean section in a timely manner or call for help in a timely manner.

The baby’s head and the rest of his body emerged separately, but medical providers worked to keep the parents in the dark about the truth and from them dead child, plaintiffs said.

Although the parents demanded to see and hold their baby, hospital staff told them they were not allowed to touch or hold him, the complaint stated.

“Hospital staff allowed the young couple to only view their dead child,” the plaintiff team wrote. “During this viewing, their baby was wrapped tightly in a blanket with his head propped on top of his body in a manner such that those viewing him could not identify that he had been decapitated.”

Health care providers allegedly encouraged the mother and father to have their son cremated instead of being sent to a funeral home for burial.

It was only on July 13 — several days after delivery and a day after Ross left the hospital — that staff told them about the decapitation, a statement said.

The Clay County Medical Examiner’s Office said Tuesday that the case landed on its radar when the Willie Watkins Funeral Home contacted the office on July 13, 2023, to see if anyone reported Taylor Jr.’s death.

“Watkins FH provided information that the baby had died on July 9th or 10th, and that a private pathologist was hired by the family to perform an autopsy,” they wrote. “Watkins mentioned that they called us because they thought it was unusual that our office was not already involved.”

The funeral home’s general manager, Sylvania Watkins, told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB that this case should have come to them from the medical examiner’s office in the first place.

“After we retrieved the body from Southern Regional, I was called downstairs to come and see what they had brought back from the hospital and that’s when I noticed the baby’s head was not attached to the body,” she said. “This is what raised the red flag, to receive this baby from the hospital with that condition, that was the first red flag. Actually, this baby should’ve come from the medical examiner from the jump, so that’s how I ended up calling the medical examiner to see if it was reported.”

Treveon Jr.’s official cause of death is, “Fracture-dislocation with complete transection, upper cervical (C1-C2) spine and spinal cord,” the medical examiner’s statement said. This was because of “Shoulder dystocia, arrest of labor, and fetal entrapment in the birth canal.” Shoulder dystocia is entrapment of the baby’s shoulders during delivery. Other significant conditions that contributed to death were pregnancy-induced diabetes and premature rupture of membranes, according to the statement.

Investigator Betty Honey and Director of the Medical Examiner’s Office Brian Byars consulted with experts including one OB-GYN who had done more than 9,000 deliveries and another who had performed more than 10,000.

“The Clayton County Police Department is still actively investigating the death of Treveon Taylor Jr.,” Major Frank Thomas said in a statement to Law&Crime on Wednesday. “The Criminal Investigations Division of the Clayton County Police Department will not comment on specifics of open and active investigations.”

St. Julian did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment.

The hospital distanced itself from the doctor last year, saying she was not an employee and only used the facility as the parents’ doctor. A spokesperson said the hospital voluntarily reported the death to the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office