A South Carolina couple and their 21-year-old son were convicted this week on murder and child abuse charges in the death of their 14-year-old daughter in 2022.
The trial for David and Bobbie Jo Baynard and their son Edward Vincent Baynard — who was Heather Baynard’s paid personal care aide for the last 18 months of her life — lasted just four days and the jury returned the guilty verdicts almost immediately, WSPA reported.
Prosecutors said the girl likely did not get any care at all for at least the last year of her life.
Prosecutors showed photos of the Cherokee County home where the family lived that showed it to be in squalid condition, with Heather — who had health conditions that needed daily care — confined to a urine and feces soaked crib in a filthy, disgusting bedroom.
More than 40 animals were found in the home — one of which was already dead and two puppies that needed to be euthanized because of their condition — which doctors said contributed to the conditions that ultimate caused Heather’s death.
Heather’s bodyshowed “extreme signs of disintegratiom” when she was brought, unresponsive, to the hospital on April 11, 2022, 7th Circuit Solicitor Barry J. Barnette said.
Bobbie Jo and David Baynard were sentenced to life in prison on the murder charge, 20 years for great bodily injury to a child, and 10 years for neglect of a child. Their registered nurse son was sentenced to 30 years for murder, 20 years for great bodily injury to a child, and 10 years for neglect of a child. All the sentences are to run consecutively.
