Canyon Country Boy : Sitter Pleads Insanity in Shaking Death of Infant

A Canyon Country baby sitter charged with shaking a 6-month-old boy to death and endangering the lives of two other children pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on Thursday.

Vicki Maas, 28, entered the plea to the murder and endangerment charges before San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab, altering an earlier plea of not guilty she had made last March in the Jan. 8 death of David Allen Duncan.

Doctors said the infant died as a result of brain swelling after he had been shaken violently, court documents said. There was also a bruise on the back of the baby’s head, indicating he may have been struck during the shaking, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer.

Shortly after the incident, Maas admitted to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies that she had shaken the baby, saying, “I only did it to keep him from crying.”

Maas, an unlicensed baby sitter, had been hired by Larry and Karen Duncan, also of Canyon Country, to care for their twin infants at her home while the couple was at work, according to court documents. She was to be paid $120 a week but had cared for the twins for only three days before David’s death, court records showed.

Maas has told authorities that about 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 7 David slumped over and stopped breathing while playing on her living room floor, according to sheriff’s reports. She dialed 911 and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived, the reports said.

David died at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys the next day, after undergoing surgery.

After hearing of the insanity plea Thursday, Larry Duncan said, “She was very much sane all the times that we spoke with her. I never got the idea that she was a person on the borderline, otherwise we wouldn’t have hired her.”

He said he suspected the plea represented an attempt by Maas to avoid a state prison term. “I’d like to see her get life, but I know that’s not going to happen,” Larry Duncan said.

David and his twin sister, Amanda, who were test-tube babies, were born after the couple used fertility drugs for three years trying to conceive, according to court documents.

In addition to the charge of murdering David Duncan, Maas faces charges of endangering him and two other infants. One was a 7-month-old boy whose leg was broken on June 24, 1987, while in her care. Another was a 6-month-old boy whose ear and back were bruised while she baby-sat him on Aug. 17, 1987, Davis-Springer said.

During a two-day preliminary hearing in March, medical experts testified that the two babies’ injuries were probably caused by abuse.

Because of an error by sheriff’s deputies who had misspelled her name when the first incidents were investigated, the prior allegations were not brought to light until after David died, Springer-Davis said.

The Duncans have speculated that the death of their son might have been avoided had the error been spotted earlier and Maas been charged.

Maas, who is free on her own recognizance, is scheduled to begin the first phase of her two-part trial on Oct. 11. If she is found guilty, the second phase will be conducted to determine whether she was sane at the time of the incident.

An attorney for Maas, Larry H. Layton, said neither he nor his client would comment on the case.