Robert Rice nonetheless doesn’t perceive how he ended up inside Bibb Correctional Facility, a jail for males removed from the panhandle seaside city the place he lived whereas serving within the U.S. Air Pressure Reserves.

In 2018, his 13-month-old daughter died from neglect in south Alabama throughout his deployment in Florida. Police arrested his spouse. Lower than a yr later, she was identified with a mind tumor whereas being held on the Baldwin County Jail – a baseball-sized mass that made it unimaginable for her to look after her kids, her lawyer mentioned.

Rice’s cascade of misfortune didn’t cease together with his spouse’s analysis. Months later and a yr after the demise of Violet Rice, Baldwin County authorities determined to prosecute Rice for the demise of his little one, arguing he ignored warning indicators.

“He wasn’t residing on this space on the time of this occasion,” mentioned Robert Stankowski, his lawyer on the time. “The truth that he can be charged with manslaughter, which means he did one thing to trigger the demise of his little one, is outrageous.”

Now Rice needs to inform his story.

Rice needed to separate from the navy and cease seeing his two surviving kids to battle prison expenses. He determined in 2020 to plead responsible to manslaughter and hope the decide would possibly shorten his four-year jail sentence.

Matthew Metcalfe, is buddy and pastor at Shoreline Church in Destin mentioned Rice referred to as the evening earlier than that closing listening to.

“They came to visit to our home the evening they drove as much as Alabama for the listening to,” he mentioned. “Simply, as you’ll be able to think about, fairly upset, fairly distraught. He requested if he may pray with us. And so we did. We prayed with him. We sat there and talked and prayed with him from about 9:30 till about midnight.”

Rice mentioned he remembers stumbling a bit when the decide accepted his plea deal.

“The decide basically requested me if I felt my actions induced the demise of my daughter,” he mentioned. “And my response to the most effective of my recollection it was one thing alongside the traces of, ‘If by responsible, you imply that I used to be not there when my household wanted me, then sure, I plead responsible.’”

Not in the identical state

Rice was residing in Fort Walton Seaside, Fla., for a deployment with the Air Pressure Reserves, the place he enlisted after a stint with the U.S. Marine Corps. The electrician was an airman in a coaching program that concerned working alongside active-duty troops. He began in January 2018 for a deployment that was supposed to finish in June.

“He had a civilian job lined up and he was actually getting his life so as,” mentioned his buddy and former supervisor Shannon Younger.

Younger mentioned Rice had a uncommon ardour for navy service. After an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, he had hop-scotched his household throughout the nation, from Arizona to Louisiana to Alabama, following alternatives within the navy.

Violet’s demise despatched him right into a skid, Younger mentioned. He began lacking work and stopped responding to telephone calls. Younger fearful about his buddy.

“He was on a high-risk watch checklist,” Younger mentioned. “And I used to be performing as his private wingman. I felt personally accountable, and I made a decision I’m going to verify he’s doing all proper.”

For a yr after Violet died, Rice continued his work with the reserves and had supervised visits together with his two surviving kids. Till Might 2019, when he was charged with aggravated little one abuse and manslaughter and jailed in Baldwin County.

The case started a yr earlier with the arrest of Jordan Rice on expenses of kid abuse and capital homicide. Violet died weighing 10 kilos from the consequences of malnourishment and medical neglect, authorities mentioned. The Rice’s dwelling – an RV in Robertsdale – was in disarray, with soiled plates within the sink, used diapers and maggots in a crockpot, an officer later testified.

Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack described it as one of many worst instances of kid abuse he’d ever encountered. However circumstances of the case shifted abruptly when medical doctors identified Jordan Rice with a mind tumor. Because the mass pressed on her mind, she began to go blind whereas sitting in jail.

Docs eliminated the baseball-sized progress from her frontal lobe. Professional witnesses mentioned the tumor defined a lot of the modifications in her habits and incapacity to look after her kids. The state’s case for capital homicide fell aside as proof of her sickness emerged.

It additionally pulled the main target to Robert Rice. Though he had been stationed in Fort Walton Seaside, he typically spent the weekends together with his household in Alabama. If Violet had been ravenous for months, prosecutors mentioned, he ought to have stepped in and stopped it. His failure to behave in safety of his kids made him culpable in Violet’s demise, they mentioned.

Survivor’s guilt

Each of Violet’s mother and father pleaded responsible of reckless manslaughter in her demise. However Robert Rice obtained the longer sentence.

He took a deal a yr earlier than his spouse within the hope that he may go away jail and finally rebuild relationships together with his household, Rice mentioned. He confronted expenses of aggravated little one abuse that would have led to a for much longer sentence if he had been discovered responsible at trial.

After nearly 4 years in jail, Jordan Rice was launched on three years’ probation to a facility that may assist her be taught to dwell with imaginative and prescient loss attributable to the tumor. Rice nonetheless has greater than two-and-a-half years to serve in jail till his launch on 16 extra years of probation.

“I consider I had one thing referred to as survivor’s guilt,” Rice mentioned. “And I didn’t see the indicators. I didn’t decide up on what was actually happening and the individuals I beloved most suffered due to it.”

When Rice thinks again to 2018, he wonders what he may have carried out in a different way. When he got here dwelling on the weekends, he typically discovered his spouse in mattress and the home a multitude. Earlier than the transfer to Alabama and Violet’s delivery, Jordan Rice had all the time been a reliable mom and homemaker who stored issues tidy and doted on her kids.

Now, all of the sudden, she appeared overwhelmed, Rice mentioned.

“I by no means needed to query her skill to be a homemaker,” he mentioned. “It was by no means in query. So, I in fact trusted her and the whole lot she mentioned. When issues began getting unhealthy, I’d come dwelling and the home was a multitude. She would inform me that the youngsters had destroyed the home and mainly paint an image that she’s been up continuous, and he or she simply needed to take a break and lay down. In any other case, she is simply going to break down. Nicely, that sounds comprehensible.”

As a substitute of shopping for groceries in Baldwin County, she requested her husband to deliver them from the bottom. He carted them again in coolers. On the time, Rice mentioned he felt he was doing what he may to maintain the household going. On his weekends dwelling, he targeted on holding the RV in good restore.

“I received very consumed in simply ensuring that the home was stored up and it grew to become an unimaginable job,” Rice mentioned. “There’s solely a lot you are able to do in two days. However each weekend I’d come dwelling it was work.”

Rice didn’t make it dwelling each weekend. He had research classes that typically stored him in Florida.

Based on Younger, the Air Pressure Reserves will typically put households up in a lodge close by throughout deployment, however finances constraints meant that Rice needed to keep within the dorms and go away his household behind.

Assistant District Lawyer Teresa Heinz mentioned each mother and father had a duty to maintain their kids secure. Rice was dwelling the week earlier than Violet died.

“Mr. Rice didn’t endure from a mind tumor like his spouse,” Heinz mentioned. “Mr. Rice was there frequently. We had mobile phone proof that he was on the dwelling throughout the week that his daughter died.”

Heinz mentioned Rice accepted the plea deal and understood the phrases of his incarceration. However Rice mentioned he believed his legal professional would petition the decide to launch him on probation earlier than 4 years had handed.

Jenny Carroll, a professor of prison regulation on the College of Alabama Faculty of Regulation, mentioned the legal guidelines round little one abuse and manslaughter can apply to individuals who didn’t take actions to guard their kids.

“You could be charged should you fail in your affirmative responsibility to care for your little one, which is colloquially referred to as neglect,” Carroll mentioned.

In one other Baldwin County case in 2014, Jessica McCord was charged with the demise of her little one, despite the fact that she was out of city and had left him together with his father, John McCord. The child drowned in a bath after John McCord left the toilet, based on information reviews. Authorities charged each mother and father with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder.

The assistant district legal professional mentioned Jessica McCord was answerable for her little one’s demise as a result of she knew it was harmful to depart him together with his father. Regulation enforcement added expenses for chemical endangerment after they discovered proof of drug use within the dwelling.

John McCord pleaded responsible to criminally negligent murder, a misdemeanor. Jessica McCord took a deal that required her to confess to a felony – chemical endangerment of a kid. Former Baldwin County District Lawyer Hallie Dixon mentioned John McCord’s historical past of psychiatric diagnoses, together with substance use dysfunction, made him much less answerable for the drowning.

“The distinction of their conduct is she was conscious and decided,” Dixon mentioned. “The manslaughter cost was vital … you’ll be able to’t select medication and partying over your kids’s security.”

Carroll mentioned it may be obscure the circumstances of any particular person household. Households in poverty and people disconnected from the neighborhood could wrestle to offer secure environments for youngsters, regardless of their finest efforts. Some are scared to succeed in out for assist as a result of they may have their kids taken away.

Carroll, who was not concerned on this case, mentioned a few of that may have factored into Violet’s demise.

“That is horrible,” Carroll mentioned. “Nobody disputes that. That child is lifeless. It’s terrible. These youngsters won’t ever be the identical. That household won’t ever be the identical. However sending dad away isn’t going to make them higher. It isn’t going to make dad entire.”

His associates in Florida mentioned they didn’t perceive why Rice remains to be in jail.

“What I do perceive is that he wasn’t at dwelling when any of this occurred,” mentioned Metcalfe, his buddy and pastor. “I don’t suppose he would have recognized the youngsters had been being uncared for. I wish to see him be in a greater place.”

Discovering peace in ‘Bloody Bibb’

As a part of Rice’s plea, he agreed to haven’t any contact together with his surviving kids. Nonetheless, the hope that they may sooner or later reconnect retains him going.

Metcalfe mentioned he and Rice have stored in contact throughout his incarceration. Rice was already non secular earlier than he was imprisoned, and his religion has sustained him all through the ordeal.

“They might say I used to be neglectful or regardless of the case could also be, however I actually didn’t know what was occurring with my household,” Rice mentioned. “And now I’m paying for not figuring out. This story solely actually is smart once you attempt to have a look at it from God’s perspective. My religion has grown exponentially in right here and to see that via a lot ache and heartache, God can deliver love and success in an surroundings as desolate as a jail with the nickname Bloody Bibb.”

Metcalfe mentioned his buddy has misplaced rather a lot in jail as a result of he lacks the road smarts to navigate life behind bars. He helped Rice safe a spot at a midway home when he’s launched.

Younger, his former supervisor, mentioned he would additionally prefer to see Rice launched on phrases that may make it potential for him to serve within the navy once more.

“I really feel like he did the whole lot in his energy to care for his household given his separation from them and navy obligations,” Younger mentioned.

Rice had by no means had issues with the police or little one protecting companies earlier than Violet’s demise.

“Did he make errors?” Younger mentioned. “Most likely. However ought to he be locked up for the demise of his little one when he wasn’t there when it occurred? I don’t suppose so.”