Parents of 5-year-old who starved to death in Baltimore plead guilty to child abuse

The parents of a 5-year-old girl who weighed just 17 1/2 pounds when she died nearly two years ago pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of child abuse resulting in death.

Bernice Byrd, 33, and Gerald Byrd, 36, struck a deal with prosecutors that allows them to avoid trial on the first- and second-degree murder charges they faced in the death of their daughter Zona Byrd. The couple faces a maximum penalty of life in prison with all but 70 years suspended when they are sentenced on June 10.

When authorities discovered Zona unresponsive in her bed in October 2024, her ribs were visible and a detective who touched her body could not discern any muscle. She should have been in kindergarten, yet she was wearing toddler-size clothing that hung off her skeletal frame.

“No punishment will be as severe for these defendants as living with the knowledge that they murdered their innocent child,” State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said in a statement. “As a father, the facts of this case are nauseating, and my heart continues to ache for Zona, who is gone from us far too soon.”

Bernice Byrd’s attorney Phillip Corey Levin declined to comment.

Attorney Deborah Katz Levi, who represents Gerald Byrd, suggested the Baltimore City Department of Social Services is partly to blame for Zona’s death. The agency is one of the local offices under the umbrella of the Maryland Department of Human Services.

During Thursday’s hearing, Levi read from an April 2024 letter she said details the agency’s handling of a tip that the Byrd children were being starved nine months before Zona died.

The caller alleged the children were being kept in a locked bedroom and smelled of urine, Levi said. The caller reported Zona was “skin and bones,” and sent the agency pictures showing the girl’s emaciated state.

“Nobody disputes there was a tremendous tragedy,” said Levi, the director of special litigation for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. “The question will be culpability.”

David Roberts, a spokesperson for the human services agency, declined to address Levi’s accusation because the department is bound by strict confidentiality laws meant to protect the privacy of children and their families.

Following Zona Byrd’s death in 2024, department spokesperson Lillian Price said, “The death of any child is an immeasurable loss felt deeply by everyone in the community and by all our staff,” who dedicate their careers to protecting kids.

The Byrds pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse resulting in death of a child under age 13 and one count of child abuse in the first degree. The first was for Zona and the second for the harm to their son Gerald Jr., who was barely able to stand or walk the day Zona’s body was discovered, police said at the time.

Doctors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital found the 6-year-old was severely malnourished and weighed 35 pounds. A healthy weight for a boy that age is up to 60 pounds. He was hospitalized and fed through a feeding tube for several days after Zona was found, a prosecutor said in 2024.

On Thursday, Bernice Byrd appeared in a pink jumpsuit and Gerald Byrd wore yellow. They locked eyes and nodded at one another after being led into the courtroom and seated next to their attorneys.

Maryland reported 46 deaths from child abuse or neglect in 2024, up from 23 in 2014. That’s about four deaths per month. A Banner investigation last year revealed the state had repeatedly failed to properly track deaths from suspected abuse or neglect.

Police officers who searched the Byrds’ home in Northeast Baltimore the day Zona’s body was discovered found food stashed inside a locked closet that was inaccessible to the girl and her siblings. The Byrds couldn’t say when they’d last fed their daughter or seen her alive.

It takes months for a child to starve to death and, in Zona’s case, there were signs of trouble.

Her brother was often seen rummaging for food in the trash at school, a prosecutor said during a court hearing in 2024. It’s unclear if that behavior was reported or investigated. A spokesperson for Baltimore City Public Schools declined to comment at the time.

That year, Bernice Byrd told a pretrial services investigator she suffered from depression and bipolar disorder. A judge determined she was competent to stand trial.

She told police she had been asleep most of the weekend before she found Zona’s body, a prosecutor said. And she claimed it was her 9-year-old daughter’s responsibility to feed her younger siblings, then ages 6, 5 and 2. They also have two older sisters.

Levi, the attorney representing Gerald Byrd, criticized the caseworker who visited the Byrds’ home in February 2024 to investigate maltreatment allegations. She said the worker failed to ensure the children were in school or receiving medical care and alleged the agency failed to follow up to ensure the children were well.

She said she hopes this case prompts public conversation about how caseworkers are trained, what they look for when they investigate maltreatment allegations and the services they’re supposed to be providing.

“I think it would be most appropriate for everybody in charge to be looking at why this happened,” she said.

“Our concern with entering a plea is that this goes away, and we really want to make sure that people are looking at what happened here so there’s no other systemic failures.”

This article has been updated.