An Ohio woman took pills to induce labor to terminate her pregnancy. The baby boy was born alive, but the woman and her husband did nothing to save the child, leading to his death. (Note: The baby in the above picture is not the same as the one in this story.)
Kalina Gillum and Braden Mull were indicted last week on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter (first degree), child endangerment (third degree), tampering with evidence (third degree), and abuse of a corpse (fifth degree) after they induced labor and left the child to die. They couple appeared in Licking County court on Monday via video monitor, WCMH reported.
Licking County Prosecuting Attorney William Hayes said that the couple ordered misoprostol tablets from India and that Gillum took 12 of the pills on September 18, 2019 to induce labor. Gillum was in her third trimester, at least 28 or 29 weeks pregnant, when the couple decided they didn’t want another child. They already have a three-year-old child, who is no longer in their custody.
“At no time did either one of them ever call 911 or seek emergency medical treatment for the child,” Hayes said.
Gillum took the pills and went into labor. On September 19, she gave birth to a baby boy in the bathroom of her and Mull’s apartment. The Canton Repository reported that Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Jenny Gonzalez-Wells said the couple didn’t call 911 or seek help for the baby.
“Prior to and following the birth of the child, Mull and Gillum were engaged in text communications. After the birth of the child, neither one of them called 911 or sought any emergency medical treatment for the child and the child did not live,” she said.
Early on September 20, Gillum sought medical treatment at Licking Memorial Hospital. Hospital workers reported to Licking County Dispatch that a woman arrived at the hospital with an exposed umbilical cord but no baby. A Heath, Ohio, police reported said the cord was “too large for it not to have been a full-term infant.”
The baby, identified by the Repository as Cayden Gillum/Mull in a police report, was pronounced dead at 2:24 a.m. September 20, 2019.
Police responded to the hospital’s report and went to Gillum and Mull’s apartment. Gonzalez-Wells said Cayden’s body was found in a shoebox inside a trash bag during a search of the home. The Repository reported that additional evidence found in the home showed the couple purchased the pills, which also treat ulcers, to induce labor and abort the child even though Gillum was in her third trimester.
WHDH reported that a coroner determined there was nothing medically wrong with Cayden.
The couple was arrested on Saturday, nearly five months after Cayden’s death. The gap occurred because prosecutors were waiting on a coroner’s report, “among other things,” according to the Repository, before taking the case to a grand jury.
On Monday afternoon, the couple appeared via video monitor for a bond hearing, which Magistrate Mattie Klein set at $150,000 for each defendant. Gillum and Mull were also ordered not to contact each other or the rest of Cayden’s family.