By Rick Pfeiffer
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS —
LOCKPORT — A Niagara County Court judge, over the objections of prosecutors, has granted a Falls couple supervised visitation with their surviving children while they await trial on murder charges for the death of their 22-month-old daughter.
Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza denied a request by prosecutors for a temporary order of protection barring contact between Randy and Nicole Colucci and their four children. The Coluccis face charges of second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in the death of their 22-month-old daughter, Carmen.
Falls police detectives said officers responded to the Colucci home March 31 after receiving a call of “a 2-year-old not breathing.” When officers arrived, they found Carmen Colucci unresponsive and her grandmother performing CPR.
The little girl was rushed to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and transferred to Women and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. She died April 8.
“Through our investigation, we were able to determine that Carmen was put in a (portable playpen) with her 12-month-old brother, with a twin mattress on top of the playpen and a TV on top of the mattress to keep the children from getting out,” Falls Police Detective Captain William Thomson said. “They weren’t checked on for 17 hours and Carmen got her head stuck between the (playpen) and the mattress.”
In granting visitation to the surviving children, Sperrazza said the setting would be monitored and warned the parents not to discuss the pending case.
