PRINCETON – Bond was denied Thursday for a Mercer County woman facing a charge of first-degree murder in the death of her 6-month-old son.
Katharine Janelle Boozer, 23, of Princeton appeared in Mercer County Circuit Court for a bond hearing before Judge William Sadler. In cases involving murder charges, bond must be set by a circuit court judge.
Boozer was first charged with child abuse resulting in serious injury, but this charge was dismissed when the infant, Joshua Isaih Boozer, was declared legally dead in a Roanoke, Va. hospital. Boozer has now been charged with first-degree murder and death of a child by child abuse. The murder charge carries a penalty of life imprisonment, and a conviction in the abuse charge has a penalty of 10 to 40 years.
During Thursday’s bond hearing, Boozer’s attorney, R. Thomas Czarnik, asked Judge Sadler to set a bond.
“The lady has no record. She doesn’t even have a speeding ticket,” he said.
Czarnik also said his client was not a flight risk, and had family with whom she could stay; the residence had a land line (phone) that would allow for monitoring on home confinement. There was also fear that she would be injured in jail, he added.
Prosecuting Attorney Timm Boggess asked the Boozer remain at the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley without bond since the seriousness of the charges she is facing often creates an incentive for people to flee.
When rendering his decision, Sadler said that Boozer was still a flight risk. She had only lived in West Virginia for eight months, and she had “substantial ties” outside the area, he added.
Sadler ordered that Boozer was to be held without bond. She was under protective custody, according to information with the Mercer County Circuit Clerk’s Office.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for March 1 at 2:30 p.m. before Magistrate Rick Fowler in Princeton.
The case began Feb. 7 when Trooper First Class P.H. Shrewsbury and Trooper R.A. Marsh of the West Virginia State Police detachment in Princeton went to Princeton Community Hospital. There the hospital’s personnel told them about a 6-month-old boy “with critical injuries to the head, to wit, a fractured skull,” Shrewsbury said in his arrest report.
After being informed of her Miranda rights, Boozer first said that she was alone at her home in Pepperidge Apartments all day Feb. 6 and the morning of Feb. 7, but then later admitted that a man had been with her, Shrewsbury said. Boozer said she had lied at first because he was a patient at her workplace, Southern Highlands.
In her statement, Boozer said she had “no idea how the child was injured,” Shrewsbury said.
The witness, who had not been charged in the case, said Boozer woke him at approximately 7 a.m. Feb. 7 and told him to scrape ice from her vehicle. He then said that after coming back inside, a “strange sound” came from the child after Boozer went into the bedroom. She came into the living room and the child “appeared completely limp,” Shrewsbury said in his report.
The state Child Protective Services had an active investigation ongoing after an alleged Jan. 4 incident in which Boozer allegedly put the child on the floor and kneeled on him while changing a diaper, Shrewsbury said. The child was taken to PCH.
When asked about the injury, Boozer replied that the child was “lactose intolerant and she had no idea” how he had been injured, Shrewsbury said.
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February 18, 2010
Judge denies bond for Boozer
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