Joy O'Shea Woomer
While working to revive unconscious, unresponsive 11-year-old Brent Weaver, paramedics paused to ask his parents a question:
Should they continue?
"Of course," answered the father, Mark Weaver.
But the boy's mother, Carol Weaver, said, "Wait a minute; let's think about this," according to the private duty nurse in the home that morning.
"She did not want to put him through this," Joy O'Shea Woomer told detectives, if it was going to cause the boy any pain or have negative results.
The paramedics did continue their efforts, but the child was pronounced dead a short time later on Sept. 27, 2002.
Woomer, 50, of East Hempfield Township, is on trial for homicide, accused of killing the boy with a lethal dose of morphine.
Her statement to police was read to the jury Friday afternoon as the first week of testimony came to a close in Lancaster County Court.
County Detective Joseph P. Geesey told the jury Friday he took the nurse's statement in August 2003 after the morphine had been confirmed in the child's blood.
Woomer, a licensed practical nurse, told Geesey she was hired as a private duty nurse to watch Brent, a cerebral palsy patient, through the night.
She arrived shortly before 11 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2002, and let herself into the Weavers' East Hempfield Township home as she had been instructed.
Geesey said she told him it was her first time caring for the child, so after looking in on the boy, who was asleep in his first floor bedroom, she immediately began reviewing his care chart.
Carol Weaver came downstairs and told her she had given the boy some cold medicine, because "he wasn't well and had a cold," according to the statement.
Geesey said Woomer told him she went into the living room where a baby monitor had been set up so she could listen to the sleeping child. She believed Carol Weaver went back upstairs to bed.
About three times during the night, according to the statement, Woomer told Geesey, she went into the child's room to reposition his legs, as she had been shown, to make him more comfortable.
Another time, using a bulb syringe, Woomer said she suctioned "secretions" from his mouth, according to the statement.
Around 2 a.m., she noted that the boy was "sweaty but his skin was cool" and adjusted his blankets, according to the statement.
Between 2 and 5 a.m., Woomer said she stood in the doorway and, from the light in a nearby bathroom, looked at the child who "appeared to be sleeping," Geesey testified.
At 6 a.m., according to Woomer's statement, she went into the boy's room, turned on the light and tried to "get him up and start his morning care."
His face was gray, Geesey said Woomer told him, and her hands were shaking as she tried to get a pulse.
"I didn't call 911 because I couldn't remember the address" of the home, Woomer told Geesey, so she ran upstairs calling for Carol Weaver, telling her the child was unresponsive.
They ran back down to Brent's room and Carol Weaver "helped me get him down on the floor. I called 911," handed the phone to the boy's father and began CPR, Geesey quoted Woomer as saying.
With her first breath into the child, Geesey said Woomer told him, "I was thinking, 'This kid is dead.' "
She continued CPR until the paramedics arrived and they took over the resuscitation efforts.
Carol Weaver went with Brent in the ambulance while Mark Weaver went upstairs to gather up their younger sons to go to the hospital, Woomer told Geesey.
"I knew Brent was not coming home," Woomer said, according to the statement, "so I quickly cleaned up the room," discarding a feeding tube and items that the ambulance personnel had left behind.
Woomer, Geesey said, denied giving the child any medication, including morphine, at any time.
Also on Friday, Ronald Woomer told the jury he was inside his ex-wife's home a few weeks prior to the child's death.
He and his wife had separated, Woomer testified, and he went to the house, "looking for anything I left behind."
What he noticed, Woomer said, were bottles of pills, vials of clear liquid and syringes, some with needles.
On another visit, during the same time period, Woomer said he looked in his estranged wife's computer bag, noticing two vials of clear liquid and two syringes with needles.
Defense attorney Christopher Patterson asked Woomer about a conversation he had with the defendant's brother in 2008.
The two men could not agree over the price of a house that Woomer wanted to buy, Patterson noted.
"Didn't you say there were two ways you could testify? One way was favorable to your ex and one way was unfavorable," Patterson asked.
Woomer said that was not the way the conversation was worded.
Assistant District Attorney Randall Miller asked Woomer when he had given the statement to police about seeing the drugs in the defendant's home.
Woomer said it was in March 2004, during a time when the couple had reconciled and were living together again.
Several other private duty nurses along with Brent Weaver's teacher and school nurse at the IU13, testified Friday that the child seemed well and happy prior to his sudden death.
They, along with the boy's father, Mark Weaver, told the jury that Brent had multiple physical problems that required them "to do everything for him."
Weaver testified about renovations made to their home as well as special equipment and vans they purchased to accommodate their son's needs.
They went on family vacations twice a year, attended the younger boys' sporting events and established a trust fund for Brent's future care.
But Weaver said he often worked six days a week, so it was his wife who handled most of their son's needs, including administering medications.
Weaver struggled to maintain his composure as he listened to the emotional 911 recording, calling for help the day his son died.
"What was your wife's demeanor," Miller asked.
"She totally lost it," Weaver said. "She was really upset. … I was in a state of shock. I couldn't believe it."
Weaver recalled the paramedics asking if they should continue their resuscitation efforts on his oldest son.
"I said, 'Absolutely, do whatever you have to do.' "
Testimony in the trial is expected to continue throughout next week in the courtroom of Judge David Ashworth.