Tri-Cities parents ‘sentenced to a lifetime’ without son. Nanny sentenced to prison

It started as an ordinary day in the Schreiber household, “playing with, hugging and kissing our goofy little boy” before the Richland parents went off to work, leaving their two young sons in the care of a nanny.

It ended with Jennifer and Daniel Schreiber giving consent to donate their 2-year-old’s organs, followed by an autopsy, funeral arrangements and cremation later that week.

David T. Schreiber died on July 19, 2016, one day after suffering a severe traumatic brain injury from abusive head trauma.

“He was our perfect little boy and he was ripped out of our lives and reduced to ash entirely by one person, the defendant,” Jennifer Schreiber said through tears.

The parents and their children’s nanny leaned on each other for support after David’s death, searching for an understanding of what had happened.

“We had no idea (Bellon) was continually lying directly to our faces about the events of that day and her unthinkable role in them,” said Jennifer Schreiber. “Ms. Bellon lied to first responders, she lied to authorities and she lied to our family. She has created a wall, separating herself from the reality of her actions.”

“When David’s very life hung in the balance, the person who should have been his main advocate in the direst of situations, intentionally hid the truth,” she added. “She chose her own selfish interests over allowing my child any chance to live. Her actions alone determined the tragic course of our family’s lives.”

Bellon, 34, was sentenced Wednesday to two years and three months in prison for the toddler’s death.

Changing stories

The nanny initially told paramedics and police that she had been in the living room with the Schreiber’s 3-month-old baby when she found David in the kitchen choking on his lunch.

When told that her story did not match with David’s injuries, she then said the toddler had been standing in his high chair and he later fell while she was in another room.

Almost one year later, after being charged criminally, Bellon claimed she had been holding David by his feet and swinging him like a pendulum when his head smacked into the tile floor.

The mother of two said she had played with David and her own children that way many times before.

That’s the story she stuck with in pleading guilty last month in Benton County Superior Court to second-degree manslaughter.

Wednesday, Bellon and defense attorney Scott Johnson asked for a 30-day jail sentence. They said she lied because she panicked and was scared, but never intended to hurt David.

However, Judge Jackie Shea Brown ruled that Bellon’s actions more than five years ago were at a minimum criminally negligent, and jail just isn’t appropriate given the seriousness of the crime.

She went with the prosecution’s recommendation at the top of the sentencing range.

“Ms. Bellon wants this court to believe her story, and I cannot do that given her failure to tell the truth on several occasions,” said Shea Brown. “She did have sufficient information upon which to design a story about swinging, after having met with law enforcement. And, be that as it may, the reality is David is gone and Ms. Bellon is to account for that.”

Emotional hearing

The judge further questioned the nanny’s assertions that she had been swinging David upside down right after he ate lunch.

“It’s not what a parent would do, it’s not what a caregiver would do ... and I suspect that it’s somewhat common sense, because that would upset their stomach, such an activity,” said Shea Brown.

And if the toddler hit his head before lunch, why would someone “place a child after blunt force trauma into a high chair to eat?” she continued.

Shea Brown said she was grateful to have heard from Jennifer and Daniel Schreiber during Wednesday’s day-long emotional hearing, and acknowledged that their son “should have lived a long and happy life, but for the actions of Ms. Bellon.”

“And I’m truly sorry for the suffering you have endured, and the suffering you have endured throughout the duration of the case, and the suffering to come,” she said.

Deputy Prosecutors Laurel Holland and Brian Hultgrenn met with the Schreibers following the hearing, and later told the Tri-City Herald the family is happy the court finally got to hear about David and listened to their pleas for the longest possible sentence.

During the hearing, Jennifer Schreiber said the prolonged case has turned her first-born child into a courtroom exhibit.

“After five years of legal discourse and the toll it’s taken on our lives, I strive to remember David for the beautiful soul he was, untarnished by the imperfect legal system that’s governed the aftermath of his death,” she said.

She played a short video so everyone in court could see that David “was so much more than a case to be won or lost.”

The video showed David giggling as he sprayed water from a hose, reading from an upside-down book, being woken up by his mom on his 2nd birthday, and hugging his baby brother and trying to teach him to a do a “high five.”

He loved bubbles, the outdoors, reading, music and dancing, and would “unapologetically bust a move to his favorite songs,” said his mom.

Lessons from death

Then, on July 18, 2016, his parents “watched in horror, confusion and in helplessness at two different hospitals, while doctors tried to revive him, test him for any sign of life and eventually called his time of death.”

David’s death taught his parents about grief, loneliness and despair, and left them questioning life, religion and purpose.

“I remember saying soon after he died, we were spoiled with two beautiful years of parenthood, two years of ups and downs, and every day moments in normalcy,” Jennifer Schreiber told the judge. “The rest of our lives as parents have been upended, as even the happiest moments with our surviving children are darkened by the shadow of the absence of our first child.”

Bellon spent seven minutes addressing the Schreibers and then the judge, talking about how that day has affected her own family’s lives and plans the two families had made for the future together.

“I’m so sorry for the many ways that I have failed you, keeping David safe and in being honest ...,” Bellon cried, facing the parents. “I wanted to tell you so many times but I just couldn’t say it because I’m a coward and I didn’t want to be responsible. I didn’t want to be the reason that he was gone from you guys, because I loved you guys so f----- much and I still do.”

Bellon said there is not a day that she hasn’t beat herself up for the pain and torment she caused the Schreibers.

“I know nothing will ever bring him back and I wish every day that I just could give myself up for him,” she said. “I wish I could do so much and I can’t and I’m sorry. You deserve so much better from me, because you are the best frickin’ people that I know.”

‘Self-protection and selfish’

Bellon told the judge that when “the accident happened,” it broke every sense of trust she had in herself because she’d swung David and her own daughter like that many times before.

“My false statements were self-protection and they were selfish and they did nothing but harm the family. I know that. They deserved a lot more from me,” she said.

“I completely blame myself for his death, I always will. Personally, it is guilt and shame that I will live with for the rest of my life, and there has not been a day that weight has not been on my shoulder.”

Bellon has been out of custody since the case began four years ago. She has until Oct. 6 to turn herself into the county jail, and from there will be transferred to a state prison.

Jennifer Schreiber made note of that freedom Bellon’s had at home with her family, saying David did not get that choice.

Bellon has been able to watch her own children grow while the Schreibers have struggled to rebuild their lives around the gaping hole left by David’s absence, she said.

“One of the central reasons we decided to accept the plea bargain was to shield our own family from further headlines and agony that would result from a drawn-out trial detailing the way my little boy died,” said Jennifer Schreiber.

The mother sobbed as she talked about wanting to again feel her oldest son’s soft skin, tousle his mousy hair, hear his beautiful voice and hug his little body.

“I want to watch all the joy and imagination I saw in him throughout his two years on this year blossom as he lives a normal long life,” said Jennifer Schreiber. “But there is no bringing him back. There is no righting the wrong that the defendant has brought upon our family. ... We already are sentenced to a lifetime without our son.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM.