A North Dakota jury found a Bismarck woman guilty of murder and child abuse in the 2022 death of her 5-year-old nephew on Wednesday.
41-year-old Rolanda Doyle was found guilty of both murder and child abuse. In Burleigh County, she was convicted of murder for both charges:
1) Felony AA: Murder — In course of and in furtherance of, or flight from certain crimes — Child victim
2) Felony A: Child abuse — Victim under 6 — Permanent loss or impairment
Back on February 18, 2022, Bismarck police responded to a report of Rolanda Doyle’s unresponsive 5-year-old nephew. Officers say they found him unconscious, not breathing, with several injuries throughout his body. Doyle received custody of him in 2021.
A sentencing date has not been set.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for about an hour before returning the verdicts. Doyle showed no emotion as the judge read them.
Bismarck ambulance and fire personnel responding to a 911 call in February 2022 found Geremy Doyle unresponsive at a Connecticut Avenue home. Neither they nor medical staff at a Bismarck hospital could save him.
Burleigh County State’s Attorney Julie Lawyer in closing arguments Wednesday said it was Rolanda Doyle’s actions and her failure to get Geremy medical attention that caused his death. Doyle’s phone history showed she searched for information about his infected sores, and to see why his toes were turning purple. The results said she should seek medical treatment for him, but she instead turned to home remedies and in that way hid the boy’s injuries from professionals. A doctor would have been able to treat Geremy, Lawyer said, though Doyle might have still faced child abuse charges.
“The only difference is that Geremy would still be alive,” Lawyer said.
The frostbite and gangrene in his toes was the result of him sleeping in an unheated entryway, the prosecutor said. After he was forced to walk in the hallway of the home on the premise of gaining strength, Geremy’s legs were wrapped, his feet soaked in warm water and Epsom salt, and caregivers in the household sent him “to the cold entryway to sleep,” Lawyer said.
Geremy died about 3½ months after his mother in Georgia placed him and his two siblings in Doyle’s care. Two other adults in the home have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and been sentenced in connection with Geremy’s death.
Doyle’s defense attorney, Matt Arthurs, cautioned jurors Wednesday that they “can’t make a decision with broken hearts,” noting that two medical professionals were moved to tears while giving testimony in the case.
“We know how he died,” Arthurs said, outlining the viral and bacterial infections Geremy suffered. “There was no evidence presented to show Rolanda Doyle was responsible for this beyond reasonable doubt.”
The state’s case was a series of dots that “the state wants you to connect,” Arthurs said. Geremy slept in several rooms of the house, and when he slept in the entryway it was warmed by a space heater. Testimony showed he was disciplined by Doyle only once. Doyle was reckless, should have taken Geremy for medical care, and did not provide proper care, “but that’s not abuse as it’s defined in the statute,” he said.
“The state has not proven their case beyond reasonable doubt,” Arthurs said.
A medical examiner listed battered child syndrome as the cause of Geremy’s death, and homicide as the manner of death, according to a police affidavit. State Medical Examiner Dr. Barrie Miller on Wednesday morning testified that Geremy had bleeding between his skull and brain, and a number of abrasions and scars on his body. He also had pneumonia, COVID-19 and another virus, and pockets of pus in his lungs that “would have made it virtually impossible” for him to breathe, Miller said. The boy had “dead, blackened toes,” Miller said, which happens after tissue is damaged and blood flow is stopped, and lab tests suggested he had sepsis, a blood infection.
Video of Geremy struggling to walk and falling and hitting his head showed “something was desperately wrong,” Lawyer said during closing arguments. Doyle in trying to restore the boy’s strength forced him to walk under the threat that she would “tear your behind up,” the prosecutor said.
Doyle was charged with child abuse in February 2022. The murder charge was added in June when the medical examiner ruled Geremy’s death a homicide.
Serenity Foots, Rolanda Doyle’s daughter, pleaded guilty in August to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of a minor. She was placed on probation for a year. She’d spent more than 100 days in jail before her plea and was given credit for time served.
Russell James, Rolanda Doyle’s partner, pleaded guilty in July to contributing to the deprivation or delinquency of a minor. He was given credit for 156 days served, placed on probation for a year, and agreed to cooperate with authorities in Rolanda Doyle’s case, according to court records.
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