The Vermont Supreme Court has upheld the convictions of a former Rutland child care provider found guilty on charges of involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to a child in the death of a 6-month-old baby more than six years ago.
Stacey Vaillancourt, 59, was charged in 2019 with giving a fatal amount of a sedative found in over-the-counter antihistamines to Harper Rose Briar, who was in her care.
Vaillancourt was convicted of the two charges against her by a Rutland County jury following a trial in December 2023, and was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.
She appealed her convictions, and Friday the five-member Vermont Supreme Court in a unanimous decision affirmed the jury’s guilty verdicts.
“Defendant has not identified any grounds to disturb the jury’s verdict,” Justice Nancy Waples wrote in the 17-page ruling.
“First, there was sufficient evidence presented for the jury to convict defendant for both involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to a child with death resulting,” Waples wrote. “Second, the verdicts against her are not inconsistent and do not violate double-jeopardy.”
Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan prosecuted the case at trial along with Deputy State’s Attorney Daron Raleigh. Deputy State’s Attorney Evan Meenan argued the appeal for the prosecution before the Vermont Supreme Court in March.
“I hope today’s decision brings closure and a sense of justice to everyone who loved Harper during her all-too-brief life,” Sullivan said in a statement Friday.
Dawn Matthews, an appellate attorney with the Vermont Defender General’s Office, argued Vaillancourt’s appeal. Matthews could not immediately be reached Friday for comment.
The Pittsford infant died Jan. 24, 2019, at the child care facility that Vaillancourt ran out of her home on North Street in Rutland, according to charging documents filed in the case.
Authorities had been called to Vaillancourt’s child care facility that day for a report that the infant was not breathing, the filings stated. Harper was taken by ambulance to Rutland Regional Medical Center, where she later died.
It was Harper’s third day at the child care facility when, the charging documents stated, Vaillancourt gave her a fatal amount of diphenhydramine, an “over-the-counter (sedating) antihistamine used for treatment of allergic reactions.”
An autopsy report from the chief medical examiner’s office showed that Harper’s death was a homicide caused by “diphenhydramine intoxication.”
Vaillancourt’s defense had contended the state case was based on circumstantial evidence and also raised the possibility that another person could have administered the medication.
Among the arguments in her appeal, Vaillancourt’s attorney stated that Judge Cortland Corsones erred at the trial by allowing into evidence two short videos of Harper because they were “unduly” prejudicial.
“Here,” Waples wrote in the high court’s ruling, “the State argued that it had to prove causation, so videos showing (Harper’s) developmental capacity were relevant because they demonstrated that she did not have the capacity to either give herself medicine or protect herself from harm.”
The high court rejected Vaillancourt’s argument regarding the videos.
“Any emotional response generated in the jurors from the videos does not substantially outweigh the probative value of the videos,” Waples wrote in the decision.
As of Friday, Vaillancourt was incarcerated at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison, in South Burlington, according to the state Department of Corrections.
