Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Preemie Twins Starved By Parents Who Didn't Feed Them: DA

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Courtney Soyka and Marcus Maddela are accused of not feeding their newborn twins who were born prematurely. The district attorney in Bucks County, Pennsylvania said the babies were grossly underweight when Soyka took the babies to the doctor in December. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Jennifer Schorn https://x.com/BucksDaMatt Mangino https://x.com/MatthewTManginoCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A mother and father are in jail accused of endangering their newborn twins by not feeding them. I lay out the disturbing allegations

out of suburban Philadelphia. Welcome to Crime Fix, I'm Anjanette Levy. Newborn babies, they need a lot of care. They eat about every two hours or so. And when they're born prematurely, they need even more care and feeding. But the district attorney in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, says two parents there were not doing what they should for their newborn twins. Courtney Soikas and Marcus Medela are in jail in Bucks County, charged with child endangering and criminal conspiracy. They are the parents of these twins born prematurely

last October. Bucks County DA Jen Shorn, she's going to be here with us to talk about the case in a little bit. The allegations in this case are quite simple. The DA says Soikas and Medela were not feeding these little twins. And if you've ever had a baby, this sounds unbelievable because when babies are hungry, they cry and they cry a lot. Now let's go back to the very beginning. The affidavit states that JV1 and JV2, those are the babies, that they're twins. they were each born premature at 32 weeks on October 7th, 2024. Both were held in the neonatal intensive care unit until they were allowed to be released to their parents. On or about December 11th, 2024, JV1 and JV2 were brought into the hospital

after both twins missed four medical appointment visits each. Each baby was under the first percentile for their age. Wow. So this allegation, it's stunning. These are babies that were born prematurely. They were in the NICU and they didn't weigh very much at all. And the claim is that they didn't gain very much weight while in the care of their parents. The affidavit continues, following the twins' birth and ultimate release from the NICU to live with and be cared for by the defendants, their parents, the defendants, failed to bring their children to at least four scheduled medical appointments. The twins were recommended to have regular weight checks, which were scheduled for November 12th, 2024, November 13th, 2024, November 19th, 2024, and 12-9, that's December 9th, 2024.

On December 11th, 2024, defendant Sojka attended a checkup appointment for the twins. Both JV1 and JV2 were found to be malnourished and were sent to St. Christopher's Hospital, thus originating the CWIS referrals. The affidavit discusses the baby's weights in ounces, but I'll talk about it in pounds for you. The babies were born on October 7th. Baby number one weighed just 4.16 pounds. That's really, really tiny. Baby number two weighed 3.74 pounds. But when their mom took them to the doctor two months later on December 11th, the prosecutor says that baby number one weighed 5.78 pounds and baby number two weighed 5.04 pounds. The babies were taken to St. Christopher's Children's Hospital in Philadelphia,

where they were monitored and fed regularly. A doctor wrote in her report about the babies, as both JV1 and JV2 presented with very poor weight gain, including weight below the first percentile, with no other symptoms of illness, and have improved significantly with only formula feeding by mouth, their evaluations appear to be most consistent with insufficient caloric intake at home. This would not be consistent with mother's history of patients receiving four ounces of formula every four hours, as described by SCHC staff. Additionally, patients' insufficient weight gain could have been addressed earlier if the twins had followed up with their primary care pediatrician as scheduled. Given these concerns, the evaluations for both JV1 and JV2 would be consistent with neglect and medical

neglect. Following an investigation, Courtney Soikis and Marcus Medela were charged with child endangerment and criminal conspiracy. The affidavit states, the defendant did conspire and agree with Marcus Medela that they or one or more of them would engage in conduct constituting such crime or crimes and in furtherance thereof did commit the overt act of not feeding JV1 and JV2 or caring for them in an appropriate manner, rendering both to the hospital for further care. I want to bring in Jen Shorn. She is the fact that babies get up every two hours to eat preemies. I've never had a preemie at 32 weeks, but gosh, I can't imagine that they maybe don't wake up a little more than that. And they would cry a lot. They would be starving and hungry.

So this the first many weeks of these babies' lives would have been horrific. I can't even imagine the suffering they went through. Obviously, as you indicated, babies give cues when they're hungry. And the medical professionals, they diagnosed that the fact that the babies were giving appropriate hunger cues, and they clearly were being ignored. And the fact that these children were so malnourished, I mean, this is a case of gross neglect and medical neglect because the parents failed to even just take them to the required pediatric appointments, which would have flagged the lack of weight gain. It's appalling. Are you able to tell us, did these parents have any explanation

for missing these appointments? I mean, when you have a newborn, you know, that's kind of part of the whole thing. You go to the doctor a lot when you have newborns. I mean, you're there every week or so it feels like, or every week and a half. You're so right. And the pediatric physicians and their practices, you know, if a parent forgets an appointment, which can happen, you know, they proactively seek out the parents of newborns to make sure that a missed appointment is rescheduled immediately. So it takes effort to ignore repeated appointments. It was four missed appointments. And then finally in December, after the babies were born in October, mom finally took them in and there's no explanation as to why, why she was failing to feed her children, why her husband was failing to feed

the children and why they were missing these medical appointments. I suggest that she probably knew it would reveal the case of gross neglect. So I just praise the pediatricians and the medical professionals at St. Christopher's Hospital for catching this case of severe neglect. But there's no, you say there's no explanation. I mean, the doctors had to have questioned her. I mean, she's claiming in the affidavit, it looks like she's claiming she was feeding them, but obviously they're not gaining weight. And then the hospital is like, well, yeah, now we have them and we're feeding them regularly and they are gaining weight. And then the hospital is like, well, yeah, now we have them and we're feeding them regularly and they are gaining weight.

They are thriving. I mean, gosh, could they just not afford the formula? Was she, I mean, I don't know. Was there anything, any talk of this? No, there was no indication that the parents were lacking their daily needs. Their daily needs were met. So it's clearly a scenario where the medical history that the parents were providing to the medical professionals were lies, that they were not

being truthful. The babies are thriving, thank God, in foster care. And so there is no explanation. And sometimes it's hard to wrap our brains around how this type of child abuse can occur. But this is severe neglect from, you know, just failing to meet the baby's basic needs, but medical neglect. God only knows what would have happened had the medical professionals not seen those babies in December. I fear what would have happened, especially as it relates to one of the twins. And correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, it looks to me from what I'm seeing on social media that this couple had older children as well. Yes. I mean, I have to speak in general terms. The other thing that's noteworthy is they're not young.

The mother's in her 30s. The father's in his 40s. This is not a scenario where you have very young parents who don't know better. And certainly we know there's training and awareness from the moment you leave the hospital, you know, even individuals who are young or maybe of lower IQ, they're made aware of what the basic needs that these babies, that basic needs that need to be met for their children. There's no excuse. It's not logical. It is actually just unimaginable to think of why, the why, But certainly we know these babies suffered. You've charged this as a criminal conspiracy. So that to me sounds like there was an agreement among them, according to the charge that's been filed, to not feed the babies. Is that is that what you're saying here? Yeah. So, I mean, we obviously for your spot on for conspiracy, there's usually circumstantial

evidence of an agreement and then acts in furtherance of that conspiracy. We don't have to prove an actual discussion occurred. But both of these parents had a duty to act and both of them failed that duty. They failed their babies. And so it's circumstantially quite evident that they conspired to neglect their children. I mean, plain and simple. If one parent is suffering from a medical diagnosis, depression, or for other reasons is unavailable to act, certainly the other parent should step in. So there's no explanation other than they acted in concert with one another. And

this is just appalling conduct. It's senseless. Yeah, it's so sad. I'm glad the babies are thriving and that they survived. Jen Shorn, thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. I want to turn now to Matt Mangino. He is a former prosecutor in Pennsylvania, an all-around good guy. Matt, what are your thoughts on the charges in this case? We have child endangerment, and then we have a criminal conspiracy charge. That, to me, almost sounds like an agreement or a plan to not feed these babies. Am I wrong? No, I think you're right. When you hear that word conspiracy and that charge conspiracy,

it's usually an agreement between one or more people to carry out some sort of crime. And so here we have endangering the welfare of children. You know, this is a horrific case, but it meets the elements of endangering the welfare of a child. It'll be interesting to see how they try to develop this conspiracy that they planned to endanger the welfare of these twins. Yeah. I mean, these are teeny tiny little babies. I mean, these aren't just normal average babies. They were born prematurely.

They were in the NICU. I mean, they're preemies. I'm just like, whoa. I mean, the allegation that you're not feeding them enough and that you're doing it intentionally and that there's an agreement to not do that. That's a pretty horrific and stunning, you know, allegation. Well, it is. It is a stunning allegation to suggest that this was some sort of planned crime to not nourish, feed, care for these infants appropriately and what, ultimately cause them to be in ill health or cause their death. I mean, you know, that is striking. You know, as a prosecutor, I actually prosecuted a case where it was very similar, except one of the twins died as a result. And, you know, we,

you know, we looked at this case very carefully. We looked at the background of the mother and father who both had some intellectual limitations. But ultimately, you know, it's a serious crime. It's a horrific crime to actually either intentionally or unintentionally starve your infant twins. I want to turn to the flip side of this now, because it appears from what I can tell that this couple has other children. They have older children. So, you know, you would think that they would know how to feed babies, you know, that they've, they've known the drill, they've been through this before. But how do you defend this case? How do you go about defending it then? Because basically, the DA is saying, this could have been prevented, had you just gone to your

well check appointments and just taken the babies to the doctor like you were supposed to? Well, yeah. I mean, one thing that I would look at is obviously these appointments were missed. And was it a situation where the parents were panicked because maybe the twins weren't thriving the way they should be, and they didn't want to bring the children to the doctor in the hopes that they could, you know, get over this and ultimately bring them there. You know, intentional harm in this situation, I think, is difficult to prove. Ultimately, they brought the children to the hospital, but having missed four appointments prior to that where they could have received some help, some guidance, maybe even, you know, the temporary hospitalization of the children to make sure that they were getting the nour other than they did not provide appropriate nourishment to these children, to these infants, which caused their serious health problems. that they had other children. They may not have had premature twins, preemies that had been in

the NICU, but they had other children from what I'm seeing on the internet and everything. So it just seems to me maybe this is going to be an uphill battle for them, but I don't know. There's a lot we still don't know about the case. Well, right. And it is a very serious case. This is a felony one, which in Pennsylvania is punishable by. But if you put them at risk of death or serious bodily injury and they're under the age of six, this rises to a felony one, the most serious criminal charge in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, obviously, other than murder. So this is a serious situation for these parents. It really is. And we will keep an eye on it to see how it pans out.

Matt Mangino, thank you so much. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.