Conner Avery Bachuss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering Conner

Conner Avery Bachuss was two years old. He was a little boy who loved and wanted his mother. In fact, something as simple and innocent as wanting his mommy would become part of the story of the final morning of his life. On December 5, 2010, Conner woke up and wanted to see his mother, Mashanna Bachuss. She was ill with a kidney stone and had finally managed to fall asleep after being in significant pain. Conner's older sister brought him toward his mother's room. Mashanna's boyfriend, Ronald H. Saunders II, told the children that their mother was sick and needed to sleep. He took Conner away from the bedroom and into another part of the home. Within hours, Conner would be unresponsive. Five days later, he would be dead. But those five terrible days should never erase the little boy who came before them. His name was Conner Avery Bachuss. He was a son. He was a brother. He was a two year old who woke up that morning looking for the person who made him feel safe. And he deserved to go back to his mother's arms alive and unharmed.

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Conner's Story

During the early morning hours of December 5, 2010, Conner was left with Ronald Saunders while his mother slept. A few hours later, Mashanna awoke feeling better. She planned to make breakfast and take her children to church. Saunders came into the room and asked her whether Conner had fallen the previous night. She told him no. A short time later, Saunders returned carrying Conner's unresponsive body.  Mashanna immediately knew something was terribly wrong. She screamed for help and called 911. Conner began turning blue. Emergency responders rushed him to Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, and because of the severity of his condition, he was later transferred to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville.  Doctors discovered injuries that told a horrifying story. Conner had suffered severe brain damage. There was bruising to his face and neck. There were large bruises on his back. He had internal injuries. And across his tiny body were numerous small puncture wounds.  Contemporary police reporting specifically documented puncture wounds on the bottoms of Conner's feet and elsewhere on his body. Doctors also discovered something inside his abdomen: a swallowed pushpin/thumbtack. Later accounts of the case describe well over 100 individual puncture wounds inflicted upon Conner.  Investigators also believed that Conner had been suffocated. A detective with the McCracken County Sheriff's Department said the medical examiner advised investigators that Conner's injuries were consistent with suffocation. Conner survived the initial attack. For five days, his tiny body fought. He suffered seizures and other severe medical complications. On December 9, an MRI revealed extensive brain damage, including damage to his brain stem. His family was told that Conner was unlikely ever to regain consciousness.  His family was faced with a decision no family should ever have to make. They agreed to remove Conner from life support rather than prolong his suffering. On December 10, 2010, Mashanna was finally able to hold her little boy again. Conner was placed in his mother's arms. At approximately 6:55 p.m., five days after the abuse began, Conner Avery Bachuss died while his mother held him.

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Justice for Conner

The McCracken County Sheriff's Department treated Conner's death as a child-abuse case from the beginning. After receiving additional findings from the medical examiner, authorities arrested Ronald H. Saunders II on December 22, 2010. He was charged with murder.  His bond was set at $1 million.  Saunders went to trial in January 2012.

The prosecution presented evidence concerning Conner's injuries, including the numerous puncture wounds and the pushpin discovered inside his body. But the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. The result was a hung jury.  The case did not end there. Ultimately, prosecutors and Saunders reached a plea agreement. Instead of being convicted of murder, Saunders pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter. He received a: 10-year prison sentence.  But under Kentucky law at the time, second-degree manslaughter was classified as a nonviolent offense. That classification had enormous consequences. Saunders did not serve ten years. He was released in August 2015, after serving roughly half of his sentence.

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Ronald H. Saunders II

Relationship to Conner: Mother's boyfriend

Originally charged: Murder

Final conviction: Second-degree manslaughter

Sentence: 10 years

Released: August 2015, after serving only part of the sentence

And Conner's story did not end with that sentence.

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Conner's Law

Conner's mother refused to accept the idea that fatal child abuse could be treated under Kentucky law as a nonviolent crime. Mashanna Bachuss-Waggoner fought to change the law in her son's name. Her advocacy helped bring attention to the gap in Kentucky's sentencing laws exposed by Conner's case. The resulting reform became associated with Conner's Law. The change allowed fatal child abuse to fall under first degree manslaughter, carrying a potential sentence of 10 to 20 years and requiring offenders to serve a much larger portion of their sentences before becoming eligible for release.  Conner could not benefit from the change. But children who came after him could.

Then came an especially painful development. After Saunders was released from prison in 2015, authorities accused him of abusing another child. In March 2016, reporting revealed that Saunders had been arrested after a Kentucky grand jury indicted him on a new first-degree criminal-abuse charge involving a child 12 or younger.  For Conner's mother, the news reinforced exactly why she had fought so hard after her son's death. The man originally charged with murdering her two-year-old son had received a plea agreement, been classified as a nonviolent offender, served only part of his sentence—and was subsequently accused of hurting another child. Conner's name became part of an effort to make sure Kentucky would not handle another fatal child abuse case the same way.

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Forever Remembered

Conner Avery Bachuss was two years old. There is no reason to soften what happened to him. His tiny body was bruised. He suffered catastrophic brain injuries. There were puncture wounds across his body, including his feet. A pushpin was discovered inside him. Investigators believed he had been suffocated. And for five days, Conner remained alive while his family watched and hoped for something medicine could no longer give them. But that is not where Conner's story began. It began with a little boy who wanted his mommy. That detail matters. Because underneath the medical evidence, police reports, courtroom proceedings and legislation was a two year old child. Conner should have awakened that December morning, climbed into his mother's arms, eaten breakfast and gone to church with his family.

He should have celebrated a third birthday. He should have gone to kindergarten. He should have grown up alongside his siblings. Instead, his mother eventually had to hold him in her arms as he died. What happened afterward cannot undo that. A law carrying Conner's name cannot give him his childhood back. But it means that Conner left something behind. His mother's refusal to remain silent turned the injustice she experienced after his death into an effort to protect other children. Today, his name represents more than the horrific things done to him. His name was Conner Avery Bachuss. He was two years old. He was loved. He mattered. And Abuse Angels will remember his name.