By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

An Oronogo man pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the death two years ago of a 2-month-old boy from Webb City.

Nicholas A. Hoth, 26, changed his plea to guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court with respect to the death of Zechariah Coulthard. The infant died of shaken-baby injuries he suffered while in Hoth’s care Nov. 2, 2006, at the home of the child’s mother at 515 S. Roane St. in Webb City.

The defendant’s change of plea was in accordance with an agreement with the county prosecutor’s office dismissing a second charge of assault and limiting the prison time he might be required to serve to no more than 15 years.

Circuit Judge Gayle Crane ordered completion of a sentencing-assessment report and set Dec. 1 as the date for Hoth’s sentencing.

Testimony at a preliminary hearing in May 2007 established that Hoth was dating the child’s mother, Natasha Coulthard, at the time of the baby’s death. The day in question, he was watching the child while Coulthard was away from the house with friends running errands.

Hoth told a Webb City police detective that Zechariah awoke and was crying. He told the detective that he tried to calm the infant down, but he could not and began shaking him. He told the detective that the child went limp, his eyes went “blank” and blood began oozing from his mouth.

Emergency medical help was summoned to the house, and the baby was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where doctors were suspicious of a contusion on the boy’s forehead and the blood coming from his mouth and nose. A scan showed bleeding around his brain.

At the preliminary hearing last year, Michelle Wright, who also lived at the child’s address in Webb City, testified that a similar incident took place a few days earlier when the baby was left in Hoth’s care. She said she was asleep in the home when Hoth brought the child to her twice, asking her to take him. She told the court that the baby had blood on the corner of his mouth then, and that she had cleaned him up, laid him down and given him a bottle.

Background

Nicholas Hoth’s attorney, public defender Larry Maples, tried unsuccessfully before last year’s preliminary hearing to get his client declared mentally incompetent to assist in his own defense. A psychologist testified that the defendant has an IQ of 73 on the Wexler scale, and has mental disorders secondary to alcohol use, including attention-deficit disorder, a form of chronic depression and anxiety disorder.