REMEMBERING SAMANTHA

Samantha Brown was only six months old when she died in Denver, Colorado. She was the youngest child in a family that had already experienced years of involvement with child protection authorities. Before Samantha was even born, five older children had come to the attention of the Denver Department of Human Services, and several had been removed from their mother's care. Samantha entered that family as a completely dependent baby. At six months old, she needed an adult to make every decision about her safety. She could not choose where she slept. She could not recognize when an adult responsible for her had consumed too much alcohol to safely care for her. She could not move herself from an unsafe sleeping environment. Those decisions belonged to the adults around her. On October 24, 2010, Samantha never woke up.

SAMANTHA’S STORY

Samantha lived in Denver with her mother, Jilliean Phillips, and her father, Samuel Brown. There had already been significant concerns about Jilliean's ability to safely care for children. Before Samantha's birth, Denver child welfare authorities had received numerous reports involving the family. In 2008, Jilliean stabbed Samuel while four of their children were inside the home. The injuries were described as superficial, but the four oldest children were subsequently removed. The following year, Jilliean gave birth to another baby boy at home in a bathtub. That child tested positive for cocaine and alcohol, spent his first days in neonatal intensive care and was placed in foster care after leaving the hospital. Then Jilliean became pregnant with Samantha. She tested positive for cocaine during the pregnancy. When Samantha was born, however, Jilliean and Samuel agreed to participate in treatment, and Samantha was allowed to go home with her parents. On the night of October 23 into October 24, 2010, Jilliean was responsible for caring for six month old Samantha. She drank alcohol. According to records preserved from the case, Jilliean consumed three beers and three shots of vodka. She then placed Samantha in an adult bed with her and went to sleep. The sleeping environment contained multiple articles of bedding that could pose a suffocation hazard to an infant. The Denver District Attorney later alleged that Jilliean was intoxicated while caring for Samantha and had unreasonably placed her daughter in a situation that threatened her health and safety. When Jilliean woke on October 24, Samantha was unresponsive. She called 911.

Emergency personnel responded, but Samantha was already dead. An autopsy classified Samantha's cause of death as sudden unexplained infant death syndrome. Her manner of death was undetermined. That distinction matters. The medical examiner did not establish that Jilliean directly caused Samantha's death by overlay or suffocation. The criminal case instead centered on the dangerous circumstances in which Samantha had been placed: an intoxicated caregiver, an adult bed and bedding that presented a suffocation risk.

WARNING SIGNS & SYSTEM FAILURES 

Samantha's death occurred after years of child welfare involvement with her family. Before she was born, child protection workers had repeatedly crossed paths with Jilliean and her children. Reports included concerns involving supervision and Jilliean repeatedly failing to appropriately pick up or drop off children at school. In one 2007 incident, after a school contacted child welfare workers, Jilliean suggested that her seven year old son retrieve another child from school. Then came the 2008 domestic violence incident in which Jilliean stabbed Samuel Brown while four children were in the home. Those children were removed. The following year another baby was born exposed to cocaine and alcohol and was placed directly into foster care. During her pregnancy with Samantha, Jilliean again tested positive for cocaine.

Despite that extensive history, Samantha was allowed to remain with her parents after they agreed to participate in treatment. By the time Samantha died, child protection workers had reportedly crossed paths with the family eleven times. Samantha's death therefore raised a painful question that extended beyond what happened during one night. Authorities already knew this family. Older children had already been removed. Another infant had already been born substance exposed and placed in foster care. Substance use during the pregnancy with Samantha was known. Yet Samantha remained in the home. At six months old, she had no ability to protect herself from the decisions adults made around her.

JUSTICE FOR SAMANTHA

Following Samantha's death, Denver prosecutors charged Jilliean Phillips with felony child abuse resulting in death. The Denver District Attorney alleged that Jilliean had been intoxicated while caring for Samantha and had placed her in an adult bed containing multiple articles of bedding that could cause suffocation. Jilliean ultimately pleaded guilty to child abuse negligently causing death. She was initially sentenced to eight years in prison. That sentence was later reconsidered, and Jilliean was resentenced to six years of intensive supervised probation.

 

Jilliean Phillips

Relationship to Samantha: Mother

Conviction(s): Child abuse negligently causing death

Sentence: Initially sentenced to 8 years in prison; later resentenced to 6 years of intensive supervised probation

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Samantha lived for only six months. She was too young to make any of the decisions that determined whether she was safe. She could not choose a sober caregiver. She could not choose a safe crib. She could not understand the history that already surrounded her family or know that several of her older siblings had previously been removed from the home. Samantha was simply a baby. Her death became another entry in Colorado's examination of children who died after their families had already come to the attention of child welfare authorities. But Samantha was not a statistic in a child fatality report. She was a daughter. She was a baby whose entire world consisted of the people and places immediately around her. She deserved adults who treated every decision about her safety as important precisely because she was incapable of making those decisions herself. Six months was nowhere near enough. Abuse Angels remembers Samantha Brown. Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.