Texas Mom Serving Life Sentence After Boy Dies of Salt Intoxication
Hannah Overton probably did nothing wrong, several experts say.
But the Texas mother was convicted of capital murder last year and is serving a life sentence, after a foster child died in her care. The jury apparently convicted her because she wasn’t aggressive enough in seeking medical treatment for the child, 4-year-old Andrew Burd, reports ABC News in an exclusive report.
He died from a little-known condition: salt intoxication. Although the prosecution painted several scenarios in which Overton might have pushed salt on the child, witnesses said he had an eating disorder and it appears likely, two experts tells the television network, that the 4-year-old ate the salt on his own.
Dr. Edgar Cortes, a pediatrician who treated Andrew and served as a prosecution consultant, says he believes the boy’s death was accidental. When he heard of Overton’s capital murder conviction, he was “stunned” and “just at a loss for words,” he says.
A state appeals court was scheduled to hear arguments in the case today.
