A local woman arrested earlier this month in connection with the death of her 9-month-old daughter, who was reportedly choked by a child seat buckle in August, pleaded not guilty Monday in Garland County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor count of negligent homicide.
Summer Rose Kazzee, 22, who lists a Civic Street address, was arrested on Nov. 7 on the charge, punishable by up to one year in jail, and has remained in custody since then in lieu of a $5,000 bond on the homicide charge and a zero bond parole hold stemming from her conviction on Jan. 24, 2018, on a felony charge of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor for allowing her newborn son to starve while under her care in 2016.
A hearing to determine the admissibility of statements she made to Hot Springs police after her arrest is now set for Jan. 13, 2020. Kazzee was represented at Monday's hearing by Garland County Public Defender Tim Beckham.
According to the probable cause affidavit on the negligent homicide charge, on Aug. 17, shortly before 5:30 p.m., police responded to a residence on Synder Street regarding an unresponsive child. Hot Springs Fire Department personnel and LifeNet performed CPR on the 9-month-old toddler and she was transported to National Park Medical Center where she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Kazzee, the child's mother, reportedly told police she had tried to put her twins, including the victim, down for a nap by placing them on a bed in a rear bedroom. Her daughter kept getting off the bed so she put her in her old car seat on the floor next to the bed to get her to take a nap.
Kazzee said she strapped the top and bottom straps and her daughter was "rocking herself to sleep." She said she left the bedroom, pulled the door shut and went to the living room at the front of the house which was "a considerable distance" from the bedroom, the affidavit states.
She had last checked on her daughter at 4:30 p.m. and she was still rocking and "clapping her hands." When she checked her again at 5 p.m. she found her unresponsive in the car seat with "the thing in her throat," explaining she meant the seat's top buckle.
When questioned again on Aug. 28, Kazzee said she used part of a blanket to tie around the bottom buckle so her daughter "would not mess with it," but reportedly noted the toddler had never unbuckled it before.
When confronted with the "unlikeliness of (her child) being able to unbuckle the bottom buckle," Kazzee allegedly admitted she "may not have buckled it all the way." A warrant was later issued for her arrest.
After a two-day trial, on Jan. 24, 2018, a six-man, six-woman circuit court jury had deliberated for 30 minutes before finding Kazzee guilty of endangering her son, who was emaciated and weighed less than his birth weight at 8 weeks old under the care of her and her boyfriend, Kody Weber-Kio, 22, who had pleaded guilty to the same charge a day earlier and was sentenced to six years in prison.
The jury deliberated for about an hour before recommending a sentence of three years in prison for Kazzee. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kara Petro had told The Sentinel-Record after the sentence that Kazzee would have to serve at least six months before being eligible for parole.
At her trial, under questioning by her attorney, Clay Janske, Kazzee described how she was home-schooled after being bullied in public school and basically had a ninth-grade education. She also revealed she was raped and sexually molested from the age of 3 until she was 10 by a man who was later convicted of raping her and sentenced to two life terms.
Janske had requested a mental evaluation for Kazzee in July 2017 and while ultimately she was found fit to proceed with trial, Janske told jurors she was diagnosed as "low functioning" and suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Kazzee and Weber-Kio had twins together that were born after their arrests for endangering her son, who had remained in foster care since his discharge from the hospital. Kazzee said at the trial her twins were about 2 months old and both were healthy and she and Weber-Kio had custody of them.
She said she had been getting help in caring for the twins through Change Point Pregnancy Care, a local religious organization that helps women with crisis pregnancies, and Trinity Home Health of Arkansas in Hot Springs.
"I have a lot of support with these two," she said. "I didn't have that with (her son)."
When questioned during the trial by Petro about the emaciated condition of her son, Kazzee said, "He was born really small and I didn't really notice."
A court order permanently barring Kazzee from contact with her son remained in effect after the trial, but on June 13, 2018, Kazzee filed a motion to modify or set aside the order so she could be reunited with her son.
According to the motion, Kazzee "has reformed her behavior and learned parenting skills that will allow her to effectively parent (her son," including working for over 20 months with the Department of Human Services, complying with a case plan, attending counseling, taking extensive parenting and hands-on parenting classes through Change Point.
The motion stated Kazzee expected to be paroled on Aug. 30, 2018, noting she had been "a model prisoner" and completed additional parenting classes in prison. She noted she and Weber-Kio planned to be married and that the no-contact order eliminated her ability to "reunify with her child" despite her efforts to comply with the case plan.
She noted the order would deprive her son and her twins of "significant meaningful family experiences."
The order was denied by Circuit Court Judge Marcia Hearnsberger who cited the fact Kazzee had appealed the verdict in the endangerment case and therefore the case was no longer in her jurisdiction.
Local on 11/20/2019