Arraignment set for Jackson nanny accused of child abuse

Circuit Judge Gary A. Kamp ruled during a one-hour hearing Wednesday morning that Tracy L. Poston must appear for arraignment next month at Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson.

Poston, of Jackson, faces charges of deliberately inflicting a head injury to an infant she watched at her home day care business.

On March 28, Poston was caring for the 6-month-old daughter of a Jackson couple when the child had trouble breathing and went into a seizure in the early afternoon. Dr. Charles Pancoast, a physician at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, testified at the hearing that at 2:56 p.m. that day, the infant was transported to his hospital, where doctors determined the child had suffered injuries consistent with abusive head trauma.

Shortly afterward, the child was airlifted to a St. Louis hospital, where tests showed previous injuries were consistent with the time period the infant had been staying at Poston's residence.

At the hearing, the infant's mother testified that when she reached Poston's home March 4, the nanny would not give up the baby immediately because of "crud on her mouth." When she and her daughter arrived home that afternoon, the mother found the child's mouth bleeding.

She explained that the next day Poston admitted there had been blood on the child's blanket, but that the article of clothing had been washed before the mother could see the blanket.

Once Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle and Poston's defense attorney Stephen C. Wilson had cross-examined the witnesses, Kamp found probable cause for a June 2 arraignment at 9 a.m. in Division I of Cape Girardeau County Courthouse.

bblackwell@semissourian.com