WORCESTER, Mass. -- A 16-year-old girl was ordered held without bail Tuesday after being charged with suffocating her 1-year-old son with a teddy bear.
Nga Thi Truong, of Worcester, pleaded not guilty to a murder charge at her arraignment.
Police were called to Truong's home on Sunday morning. They said Truong handed officers her unconscious son, Khyle Truong, who appeared to be in respiratory and cardiac arrest. Police performed CPR and took the child to a local hospital, where the baby was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Police said Truong first told police she found the child unresponsive, but later said she suffocated him with a teddy bear.
Her attorney, Edward Ryan, said his client is innocent. He criticized the police's interrogation of Truong, saying she was questioned for hours without having her mother or a lawyer present.
Worcester police Capt. Edward J. McGinn Jr. said Truong was read her rights and declined to speak to her mother before she was questioned. He said she never asked for a lawyer.
"We fully understood we were dealing with a young lady whose child just died, but we also know we have a responsibility to that child to determine precisely what happened to the child and what led to that child's death," McGinn said.
Truong's boyfriend, 17-year-old Edwin Vasquez, disputed the confession, calling it "impossible."
"I know they pressured her to say that," he said.
Vasquez, who was not the baby's father, said he was at the apartment on Sunday morning. Truong, a junior at South High Community School in Worcester, is pregnant with his son, Vasquez said.
"I didn't hear anything, and I was sleeping right next to him," Vasquez said.
Vasquez said the baby had a fever and woke up a few times Saturday night, before Truong changed his diaper and fed him about 8 a.m.
"I heard Khyle drinking the bottle, and he was fine," Vasquez said. "About 11 (a.m.) I woke up ... she was screaming -- she was screaming Khyle's name. Khyle was not moving at all."
Vasquez said he tried to give the baby CPR for about 10 minutes before police arrived.
According to the Boston Globe, Truong was involved with another incident involving the death of an infant earlier this decade. In 2000, Truong was babysitting her brother when he died in his crib. That baby's death was ruled Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
(Copyright (c) 2008 Sunbeam Television and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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