MUSKEGON, Mich. (Court TV) — A mother convicted of killing her teenage son won’t get a new trial, despite her argument that her attorney failed to represent her properly at trial.
Shanda Vander Ark takes the stand in a hearing which focused on questions about Vander Ark’s trial attorney, Fred Johnson. Vander Ark argued she “never consented to a lesser-included offense,” which is a statement Johnson made during closings. (Court TV)
Shanda Vander Ark, 47, was convicted of murder in the death of her son, 15-year-old Timothy Ferguson, who was found malnourished and dehydrated in the family’s home. The teenager weighed only 69 pounds when he died; during his mother’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he had been starved, handcuffed, forced to sleep in a closet and left in ice baths for hours at a time.
Vander Ark successfully petitioned for a Ginther hearing, during which Judge Matthew Kacel heard her argument that her trial attorney, Fred Johnson, provided ineffective assistance of counsel. Vander Ark testified in her own defense at her trial, but her testimony was cut short after she said she was ill and appeared to vomit on the witness stand. She was not present in court for closing arguments, where Johnson told the judge that his client “committed manslaughter … but [she] didn’t intend to.” Vander Ark said that she never gave permission to her attorney to concede to any level of culpability.
Johnson defended his strategy, saying that he chose to focus on premeditation given the evidence against his client. That evidence included surveillance video from inside her home and testimony from her elder son, who said his mother instructed him to abuse his brother. Johnson also highlighted Vander Ark’s education: She missed only one question on the bar exam and clerked for two judges before her arrest and conviction.
Kacel wrote in his order denying Vander Ark a new trial that the evidence against her was “overwhelming,” and her attorney’s performance would not have affected the jury’s findings even if he had been deficient, WZZM reported.
Vander Ark testified that her mental health spiraled after her husband had a stroke and later passed away, and she described Timothy as a troublemaker and a liar. “He did not care to tell the truth, hardly at all,” she said at the Ginther hearing in March.
Vander Ark was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Timothy’s murder, plus an additional 50 to 100 years in prison for first-degree child abuse. She’s being held at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, according to Michigan Dept. of Corrections records.
