A 30-year-old mother from Alabama will serve more than 20 years in prison for the murder of her 18-month-old son, who was battered to death by her boyfriend five years ago.
Samantha McCormack, who stopped to buy cigarettes on her way to the emergency room, was sentenced to 25 years in a state jail facility for the murder of baby Enzo McCormack in 2019.
Samantha McCormack has already pled guilty to felony murder in the context of child abuse.
Last year, the boyfriend, 32-year-old Robert Elmore Jr., was found guilty of capital murder by intentional murder of a person under the age of 14 and aggravated child abuse of a child under the age of six. He was then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Elmore’s conviction for severe abuse arose from his beating of Enzo’s brother.
“The story is horrific. I can’t picture the anguish and suffering this boy went through before dying to his injuries. I can’t see why Elmore did what he did. But, as a mother, I don’t understand how a mother could put her child in the care of someone she knows has abused the child,” Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said in a statement. “Elmore and McCormack will be held accountable within the extent the law allows.”
Blount County Emergency Medical Services personnel responded to the Locust Fork Grocery & Hardware/Marathon Petroleum in the 30000 block of AL-79 at 7 p.m. on September 6, 2019, for an unresponsive toddler, according to Birmingham ABC affiliate WBMA. The business is around 30 miles northeast of Birmingham.
When first responders arrived at the site, they reported finding the toddler limp, unresponsive, and blue in the face. The infant was immediately rushed to the Locust Fort Volunteer Fire Department and subsequently to Alabama Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
Enzo remained on a ventilator until September 9, 2019, when physicians assessed that he had no brain activity and that nothing else could be done to help the infant, according to Birmingham CBS station WIAT.
According to AL.com, McCormack told detectives she was at home with her children when she noticed Enzo choking on cereal. A few hours later, she decided to transport him to the hospital. However, McCormack reportedly stated that while on her way to seek medical assistance for her son, she chose to stop and grab a pack of cigarettes at Locust Fork, where a family friend works.
The family member went out to the car to check on Enzo, finding him limp and cold to the touch, and called 911.
When questioned by authorities, Elmore claimed that while holding Enzo on September 6, 2019, the toddler plucked one of his chest hairs, forcing him to drop the child.
However, a doctor testified at trial that Enzo sustained blunt force trauma to the head as well as “severe acceleration and deceleration injuries from being violently shaken,” according to WIAT. The toddler also sustained a fractured skull.
On September 6, 2019, at 5:41 p.m., Elmore texted McCormack that Enzo “ain’t breathing rite … he is limp … and almost blue,” according to AL.com.
McCormack lost custody of her children in October 2018 but was able to reclaim possession in June 2019, according to Lawandcrime.