Parents accused of starving 5-month-old

Friday, February 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A Tulsa couple are behind bars after being accused of intentionally starving their 5-month-old son to the brink of death. Bennie Douglas Price, 24, was charged Thursday with injury to a minor child. The mother, Stephanie Lynn Price, 23, was jailed on a charge of permitting injury to a minor child. They were being held in lieu of $75,000 bail each.

Authorities allege the boy was starved by his father, who was seeking more attention from the baby's mother, Tulsa Police Sgt. Wayne Allen said Thursday. He said authorities allege the mother hould have noticed that the infant was starving and should haved one something to help him.

Stephanie Price has told police she thought the baby was just thin, Allen said. "She claims ignorance, but her claim does not add up. Just by looking at him, she should have known there was something really wrong," police Sgt. Gary Stansill said.

The baby, named Nathan, remains hospitalized in intensive care. Court records say he suffered neurological damage. Stansill said Nathan weighed more than 8 pounds at birth on Sept. 8. When his mother brought him to St. John Medical Center on Feb. 2, he weighed 7 pounds. The boy was "cold to the touch, gray in color, extremely malnourished and dehydrated. He had a body temperature of 93 degrees and was near death," Allen said.

Detective Darren Carlock said he was told by a doctor that a healthy child on average should double in weight by 5 months and triple in weight by 1 year. "The investigation determined that Bennie Price was deliberately starving the baby because he felt he was not getting enough attention from his wife, the baby's mother, and he thought the baby was getting all the attention," Allen said.

The father primarily cared for Nathan and the couple's three other children while the mother worked and attended school, Allen and Stansill said. The other children, girls ages 2, 3 and 5, were all healthy, Stansill said. All were taken into protective custody.