Woman Accused Of Son’s Death Waives Case To Trial

A mother charged in her 2-year-old son’s summertime death waived her case to trial on Monday.

Jennifer Clarey, 42, of Tullytown, waived her criminal homicide case forward before District Judge Robert Wagner Jr.

Clarey will remain in the Bucks County Correctional Facility without bail.

Mazikeen Curtis, Clarey’s young son, was discovered unresponsive after 10 p.m. on Saturday, August 25 inside a home at 501 Lovett Avenue in Tullytown.

Bucks County Children and Youth Services were initially called because Clarey was reported to be uncooperative and intoxicated, authorities said in a court papers.

Police from Tullytown entered the home after being called by Bucks County Children and Youth Services and found Clarey on a blood-covered sheet next to her lifeless son, who appeared to be dead for some time, law enforcement said.

Responders said they found Clarey with apparent significant self-inflicted lacerations to both of her wrists. She was treated at Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township.

Police wrote in court documents that Mazikeen had no obvious signs of trauma, but an autopsy did reveal his brain was “swollen and dusky,” which indicates there was likely an overdose.

During the autopsy, postmortem cardiac blood samples were taken and sent to the lab for toxicological analysis. The lab report indicated that Mazikeen’s blood contained fatally toxic levels of hydrocodone, it’s metabolite hydromorphone, and diphenhydramine, the common ingredient in Benadryl. The drugs found in the boy’s blood were identical to empty containers removed from Clarey’s residence, police said.

A search of the residence where Clarey, who has older children that did not live with her, and the boy were living uncovered a bloody knife and utility razor blades, a locked strongbox with a prescription bottle for hydrocodone-acetamin, which had been filled on August 18 for 120 pills and was empty with the cap secured, and an empty 4 fluid ounce bottle of children’s Benadryl with the cap secured in the kitchen trash, police said.

Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said in September that a motive was not entirely clear.

“This was certainly a killing with malice,” he said.

Clarey is represented by a public defender, according to a court docket.