Charges dropped against mother accused in daughter's drowning death

Amber L. Sprouse, twice tried in court for the drowning death of her 11-month-old daughter, will not be tried again.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas Knoll submitted a one-page motion Wednesday, dropping an Augusta County charge of felony child neglect.

Reached at her Fishersville home in the evening, The News Virginian informed the 24-year-old woman of the “nolle prossed” charge that has hounded her for more than a year and dragged her through two jury trials — both declared mistrials.

“Since day one, the Lord has been in my life,” Sprouse said. “He has blessed my family and He knows the truth: I would not hurt my babies.”

The mother of two — pregnant with a third child — cried on her couch.

She hugged her daughter.

“I can give you a tissue,” said the little girl, “so you can blow your nose when you need to.”

Sprouse said she would call her attorney to confirm the motion.

“I think it’s time to move on,” Knoll said. “We tried it twice and I’m just willing to let it go.”

The Jan. 24, 2007, attempt to convict Sprouse of intentionally drowning her baby, Chloe Sprouse, ended during the lunch break, when a juror slipped and hit her head on a brick walkway.

With one juror hospitalized and having no alternates to turn to, the judge declared a mistrial. Jurors had heard most of the evidence, Knoll said, including a story of household tension the day Sprouse’s daughter died in the bathtub.

The follow-up April 2007 trial ended after one juror, a psychologist, disagreed with the interrogation tactics caught on tape.

The emotional, hourlong interrogation shows an aggressive investigator drawing a partial confession that daughter Chloe Sprouse was allowed to drown. Before it was played, however, the juror spoke up: “As a psychologist, this strikes me as coercive.”

The judge declared a second mistrial, saying he has never seen such an attitude in a juror.

“He is pompous and arrogant beyond belief,” Augusta Circuit Judge Thomas H. Wood said of the juror.

Knoll said the unusual mistrials and subsequent letters written to newspaper editors in part convinced him to drop the charge.

One letter called the trial a witch hunt. Another guessed Sprouse would never be convicted.

Sprouse said she will keep praying.

“The Lord,” she said, “has shown I’m not the hateful monster people have made me out to be.”