Couple convicted of abuse in child's death

MOUNT CLEMENS (AP) — A jury has convicted a man and woman charged with child abuse after their 11-month-old daughter died from eating a morphine pill.

The Detroit Free Press reports the jury deliberated several hours, starting last Thursday afternoon, in Macomb County Circuit Court before reaching a verdict last Friday on charges of second-degree child abuse.

Harold and Kimberly Murphy were charged in the October 2013 death of Trinity Murphy.

Prosecutors argued the couple committed the “reckless act” of maintaining an extremely messy house that allowed the child to ingest the pill that was intended for her recently deceased grandmother.

The couple’s attorneys say unclear how the child got the pill.

The jury listened to testimony and looked at pictures of the Sterling Heights home that was described by a police detective as filthy.