UPDATE: Mother says she never gave child Benadryl

An emotional day in court Monday as the mother took the stand against Valorie Handy, the woman accused of killing her 10-month-old baby boy. Handy is facing one count of murder by abuse for a child that died while at her daycare.

The state had previously claimed during opening statements that “an acute amount of diphenhydramine”, an active ingredient in Benadryl, was the cause of death. 

However Monday on the stand the mother claimed she had never given the child Benadryl and in fact never even had the medicine in her house.

During the mothers roughly two hours of testimony, the state pressed the fact that the mother was extremely careful with her son in terms of his health. The mother even saying that she originally did not want her child in daycare because she was skeptical of trusting anyone she didn’t know with her child.

During the defense’s cross examination though they revealed that the mother told detectives in an interview at the time of the child’s death that she thought Handy was a good caretaker. She added that she could tell her son liked her and liked the way he cared for her because of the way he responded to her.

The mother also testified that she was naïve to think that at the time.

Also during testimony the jury heard from two women who had children in Handy’s daycare. Both testified that  Handy loved the children she looked after and in turn the children loved her.

During the testimony for this case the state still has not heard who administered the Benadryl to the child.

The trial is expected to last at least until Thursday.