Clinton Twp. woman gets 2 years probation for freezing son to death. Prosecutor appeals
A Macomb County judge on Wednesday sentenced a 25-year-old Clinton Township woman to two years’ probation for manslaughter in connection with the death of her young son in January 2023. Prosecutors criticized the sentence as too lenient and not punishable.
Derricka Fleming, 25, pleaded no contest in April to a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of her 5-year-old son, who was found frozen to death in a nearby park, according to the Macomb County District Attorney’s Office. The crime carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, but Macomb County District Court Judge Kathryn Viviano sentenced Fleming to two years’ probation, saying she did not see how incarcerating Fleming “necessarily constitutes the punishment.”
“I think justice was done,” Fleming said after the verdict was announced.
But Macomb County District Attorney Peter Lucido said in a statement that while his office respects the court’s decision, it believes pretrial detention is warranted in this case. The office “requested pretrial detention to underscore the seriousness of the crime and to seek justice for the loss of this young life,” he said.
“I have always believed that you must be held accountable before you can get redress,” Lucido told The Detroit News after the verdict.
The public prosecutor’s office is currently unsure whether it will appeal the case because “we want to go through this with the families involved,” Lucido said.
According to prosecutors and Fleming’s attorney, Fleming put her son, Lamar Tyrone Mitchell, to bed in her apartment on Jan. 22, 2023, and then visited her boyfriend at another apartment in the same building. The child reportedly got out of bed that night, left the apartment and was later found in a nearby park, according to Lucido’s office. The child was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Lamar’s father said at the preliminary hearing that Lamar has autism and can only communicate verbally in a minimal way. He also said he never feared for the boy’s safety when he was with his mother.
According to the Legal Information Institute, Fleming pleaded no contest, meaning she did not contest the charges but also did not plead guilty.
Defense and prosecution present their arguments
Noel Erinjeri, Fleming’s lawyer, said her boyfriend lived in an apartment upstairs in the building and had been using a phone to monitor her child via video. He said her usual modus operandi was to come back downstairs if the boy moved or made any noise.
He said Fleming has spent much of the last year and a half wishing she could have done things differently.
“But Your Honor, I honestly believe that this is the kind of mistake that could happen very easily – that it is not gross negligence,” Erinjeri said.
The defense attorney said she fell asleep during the night and therefore did not return immediately.
Erinjeri also said that Fleming has no criminal history and that Lamar is “a happy child.” He noted that Lamar’s doctor said there were no signs of neglect or abuse.
Viviano repeatedly asked Stephanie Stager, head of the Macomb County District Attorney’s Child Protection Unit, about a hypothetical situation in which Lamar was in the same house as his mother, rather than the same apartment building. Stager said if they had been in different rooms in the same house, Fleming would have been “accessible to him.”
“I think it’s a different situation,” the assistant district attorney said. “But here we have her in a different area of the residence where he doesn’t have access to her. He doesn’t know where to find her.”
Stager said that was the reason Lamar went outside.
“I think she took steps to take care of her son, but it wasn’t enough,” she said.
As Viviano announced the verdict, Fleming looked up and prayed.
After the hearing concluded, she told The News that “grief is a complex matter.”
“It doesn’t go away,” Fleming said, “and everyone deals with it differently.”
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