Two people have been arrested in Paducah in connection with the death of a one-month old infant late last year.
Paducah police reports said 40 year old Victoria Martin was charged with murder, while 68 year old Eugene Thomas Jr. was charged with first degree criminal abuse of a child twelve or younger.
On November 28th, officers responded to an unresponsive infant.
The first officers to arrive found Ms. Martin holding her one-month-old daughter, and immediately
began performing CPR.
The child was taken by ambulance to Baptist Health Paducah, where she was pronounced dead due to suffocation.
Martin refused to talk with detectives, but told Department for Community Based Service workers she was sitting in bed, holding the infant and eating, about 3:00 in the morning.
She passed out due to significant intoxication and awoke at 3:40 to find the child unresponsive and not breathing.
Police reports said Ms. Martin did not call for help at the time, with another adult in the home calling 911 about 5:00.
Preliminary autopsy results confirmed the child died of positional asphyxiation.
Investigations showed Thomas knew Ms. Martin regularly abused alcohol, and was supposed to be supervised with her children, although he left the infant and the other children in her care.
She was convicted in 2019 of second-degree criminal abuse, after her then-seven-month-old daughter sustained a fractured skull and brain bleed. She was sentenced to four years in prison.
Martin and Thomas were booked into McCracken County Regional Jail.
