Father charged for failing to act in death of 17-month-old McKeesport boy

The father of the 17-month-old McKeesport boy allegedly suffocated by his mother is now facing felony charges for failing to intervene or alert authorities to her threats to kill the child.

Andre Price Jr., 23, of McKeesport, was arraigned early Friday after his arrest Thursday by Allegheny County Police on two counts of felony endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the asphyxiation death of his toddler son, Andre Price III, and the alleged attempted suffocation of his 2-year-old daughter.

Price Jr. was unable to post $10,000 bond and is being held in the Allegheny County Jail pending a preliminary hearing Nov. 14.

His girlfriend and the child's mother, Christian Clark, 21, of McKeesport, is charged with homicide for pressing her son's face into the bedding of an air mattress until he stopped breathing, and attempted homicide for pushing her daughter's face into a pillow.

Police said Clark was angry with Price Jr. for allegedly cheating on her and for refusing to come over on Tuesday, and threatened to hurt their children during a more than two-hour exchange of text messages.

Clark eventually killed 17-month-old Andre Price III and sent his father three videos of the children, two of whiche showed their son unresponsive, police say.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner announced that the toddler died from asphyxiation and ruled his death a homicide.

Clark, who has no prior criminal convictions in Pennsylvania according to online court records, remains in the Allegheny County Jail without bail. Her preliminarily hearing is scheduled for Nov. 16.

Two Western Pennsylvania defense attorneys told the Tribune-Review that Clark showed intent when she suffocated her son and attempted to kill her daughter, texting about it in advance and capturing the horrifying aftermath on video — actions they say will be hard to justify in the legal system.

“This is extraordinary behavior,” said defense attorney Blaine Jones. “No matter how angry you get, you don't allegedly suffocate a child and then allegedly try to hurt the other one.”

The video and text message evidence makes it different from other cases in the region in which mothers have been accused of murdering their children, the two attorneys said.

The video and the text messages show intent, which takes away from several defenses a lawyer could present, said defense attorney David Shrager.

“It's going to be difficult for a defense attorney to argue that her state of mind was not to injure the children, to kill the children,” Shrager said. “It's also going to be difficult to argue that this wasn't pre-meditated.”

Jones represented Sharon Flanagan, of Inwood, W.Va., who was convicted of purposefully drowning her 2-year-old son Steven T. Flanagan in a Green Tree hotel in 2012.

The difference between the two cases is that evidence indicates Clark's actions were deliberate, he said.

“Ms. Flanagan maintained throughout her trial, even when she testified, that she never intended to hurt her son, whereas this woman, at least the allegations with respect to the text messages, are that she's threatening, she's going to hurt these kids,” he said. Flanagan was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a first-degree murder conviction in 2013.

Jones said some wording in the text messages would cause him to look at Clark's case from a mental health standpoint. In one message she wrote: “I really snapped this time.” “That's not a complete defense, but it possibly can be a mitigating factor in terms of pleading insanity,” Jones said.

Jones said he would look at the case in its totality by checking if Clark has any prior charges or arrests, if she had any mental health diagnoses, if she were medicated and taking her medication at the time of the incident, if Children, Youth and Families has ever been involved with the family, and what type of mother Clark was.

“You don't just look at it in a vacuum, you try to put the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out what potentially lead to this allegedly happening.”

Madasyn Czebiniak is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-320-7822 or mczebiniak@tribweb.com.