The Best Stories You've nEver Read #23
What Killed Baby Lucas?: Lisa Mullenax and her husband, Alejandro Mendez Vargas lost their three-month old baby, Lucas, in 2002. But that doesn't begin to describe their nightmare. Alejandro was accused of killing the child by shaking him. The prosecutor announced he would seek the death penalty As it turned out there was considerable evidence to show that Lucas had died of a rare blood disorder and that the hospital reporting the alleged abuse had overlooked it. Even so, the prosecutor kept after Vargas though it offered to reduce the charges to time served and asked only for a no contest plea. Vargas faced a difficult decision. Should he accept the plea bargain even if he is innocent? This is a heart-wrenching tale well told by Tom Avril of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
