Mother admits role in teen's fatal alcohol binge
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
A Missouri mother of three pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a teen who ingested fatal levels of alcohol and prescription drugs in her living room while she chatted on the phone upstairs.
In a plea agreement with Greene County prosecutors, Barbara Grimes, 50, will serve two years' supervised probation for the 2003 death of Jeffrey "Cale" Gormley, after Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Todd Myers agreed to credit the nine months she has already served in custody toward a jail sentence.
"We're very happy with the outcome," Myers told Courttv.com. "We felt the amount of time she had already served in custody was suitable for her culpability in the matter, since the victim did contribute to what happened to him."
Grimes originally faced seven years to life in prison for second-degree murder and child endangerment, after admitting to police that she knew Gormley was drinking and popping Xanax in her home on February 23, 2003.
For the victim's mother, however, the punishment isn't nearly enough.
"She could have helped him," Tonja Blount told Courttv.com. "I just want to see her do the time I'm doing. I'll be doing life for this."
Blount last saw her son on Saturday, February 23, 2003, when Gormley's friends stopped by her house around 7:30 p.m. looking for him.
According to police reports, the teens picked up a bottle of Jim Beam, a case of beer, and the Xanax pills for $2 a pop and headed to the Grimes home in Rogersville.
It wasn't the first time Grimes had opened her home to her teenaged sons and their friends as a venue for underaged drinking, according to Myers.
But the party came to a halt early the next morning when police responded to a 911 call reporting that Gormley had passed out.
When they arrived, they found 16-year-old Gormley dead from asphyxiation. He had a blood alcohol content of .402, according to police reports.
Barbara Grimes admitted to police that she had spent most of the evening in her upstairs bedroom, fully aware of what Gormley, her two sons and guests Mitchell Choi and Nathan Smith were doing.
She told police she went downstairs after hearing a "thud" to discover Gormley "freaking out" before passing out under a coffee table. Grimes told the others to move the boy out from under the table and went back to bed, according to police.
Smith and Choi, the two other party guests, also pleaded guilty in 2003 to charges related to the incident.
Choi, 20, was sentenced to 150 hours of community service for purchasing and providing the Xanax Gormley ingested. Myers said Choi's willingness to testify against both Grimes and the man who sold him the prescription drug factored into his sentencing.
Smith, 19, was sentenced to five years in prison for first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Smith admitted to giving Gormley the alcohol and watching him ingest Xanax, but failing to seek medical attention for his friend once he began exhibiting signs of distress.
He was also on probation for an unrelated crime when the incident occurred.
Blount has filed a civil suit against Grimes, Smith and Choi, which is pending.
