Candace Stanley: Drugged-Out Mom Gave Birth High, Called Baby An ‘Alien,’ Prosecutors Say

Candace Stanley is a 22-year-old mom from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who according to prosecutors who have brought child neglect charges against her, gave birth to a premature baby while she was high on drugs, then placed the infant on a pile of trash and did nothing while the baby turned blue, even refusing to carry out the instructions from 911 operators and paramedics who showed up to help.

In fact, they say, the allegedly drugged-out new mother told 911 operators that her new baby — born at 36 weeks — was an “alien.”

Babies born before 37 weeks are considered premature.

Stanley was the subject of a court hearing in Tulsa on Tuesday at which her attorney — who denies that the young mom referred to her baby as an “alien” — requested that a judge reduce the $50,000 bail that has kept her behind bars since her arrest on January 12.

Attorney M.J. Denman asked for the bail amount be dropped to just $5,000, but Judge William LaFortune refused, agreeing with prosecutors that the extreme neglect she showed her newborn preemie, according to the charges, makes her “a danger to the community.”

In an earlier hearing, paramedic Emily O’Banion testified that she went to the apartment on East 16th Place in Tulsa back on December 16, because a 911 caller had made a series of barely coherent calls asking for help and mentioning an “alien” in the apartment.

When O’Banion showed up at the apartment she described as a filth-ridden “drug hovel,” she found Stanley naked on a couch and covered in blood. The young woman held an umbilical cord in her hand with a piece of placenta attached — but she made no mention of a baby, until O’Banion noticed the newborn infant lying on top of a trash can that was full of garbage.

Temperature in the unheated apartment was only about 40 degrees, and Stanley had done nothing to cover the baby or keep the infant warm at all.

The baby had turned blue and was motionless. When O’Banion handed the little boy to Stanley and gave her instructions on how to help revive her new son, she pushed the infant away, O’Banion testified.

O’Banion was able to save the newborn, but at a hospital, the baby tested positive for the prescription drug Xanax, as well as methamphetamine and marijuana. Stanley herself tested positive for methamphetamine.

Initially, when taken to the hospital, Stanley claimed she never knew she was pregnant, but that two men held her down and forced her to smoke marijuana. She then went to sleep and when she woke up, the baby was between her legs.

She later admitted knowing she was pregnant, but told doctors that she feared vampires were trying to “get her.” She also admitted to heroin addiction.

According to a police affidavit, the baby required heart-lung bypass surgery and was treated for heart conditions that prosecutors said would have been avoidable with proper prenatal care and, of course, if the mom had not used dangerous drugs during her pregnancy.

Stanley’s latest hearing came about a month after a 20-year-old mom of two in New York drove into a river, and thought that her kids were in the car, but due to her drunkenness had forgotten she left them home alone.

A jury trial for Candace Stanley on the child neglect charges is set for December 1.

[Image: Tulsa Police Department]