The legal ordeal is over for a father who disconnected his comatose son from a respirator and held him until he died, but the act of desperation reveals a gap in laws dealing with euthanasia, experts said.
A grand jury refused Thursday to indict Rudy Linares on a first-degree murder charge for the April 26 death of his 15-month-old son, Samuel.Linares, 23, pulled a .357-caliber Magnum handgun on hospital staff and kept them at bay while taking his son off a respirator and cradling the boy in his arms until the severely brain-damaged toddler died.
He said he did it "because I loved my son." The child had been in a coma since August, when he accidentally swallowed a balloon, cutting off oxygen to his brain.
Linares pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful use of a weapon and was sentenced by Circuit Judge Robert Bastone to one year conditional discharge, meaning he will serve no time in jail.
Bastone told him to get a psychological evaluation and consider counseling.
"As far as punishment is concerned, I think you have suffered enough," the judge said.
"I'm glad it's more or less behind me now," Linares said. "I want to thank everybody that sent me cards, letters, their prayers, moral support."
Linares, a house painter from Cicero, had been charged with murder, but after the grand jury action, the state's attorney's office said it would not prosecute the charge.
Groups that back legislation to support parents and other relatives in such cases applauded the grand jury's decision.
"Everybody is really relieved for Mr. Linares," said Fenella Rouse, legal director for the New York-based Society for the Right to Die. "It's the right decision. I'm very glad he'll be able to get back to some relative privacy."
Rouse said laws and court precedents at the federal and state levels protect parents and doctors in disconnecting life support when children are in irreversible comas.
"This wasn't a gray area," she said.
Prosecutors, the hospital and Linares' lawyers disagreed.
Public defender Kevin Smith said Congress and state legislatures must draft laws to govern such cases.