Physician, social workers detail multiple conversations with mother on trial for child neglect, death of son

Iowa Infant Death Trial

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(ABC 6 News) – The jury trial continues for a Plymouth woman accused of child endangerment, leading to the death of one of her twins by malnutrition.

On Wednesday, Jan. 31, jurors heard testimony from a primary care physician who was a resident at Mercyone at the time of Allyssa Luke’s arrest.

The doctor said she checked on the twin boys on several occasions and warned Allyssa Luke about their weight and feeding at their last in-person visit before the death of Abel Luke.

But on a phone check-in, Allyssa Luke told Dr. Amanda Tran that the children had improved.

“(We) talked about how they don’t have the same reserve … as an adult would and that we definitely needed to make a change in terms of the feeding plan to improve their intake,” Tran, an obstetrics, gynecology, and family medicine doctor at Essentia Health–Virginia Clinic, told jurors.

Jurors also heard from social workers and counselors who claimed they had conversations with Luke about caring for and properly feeding the babies.

The state called Sgt. Terrance Prochaska back to the stand to talk about Facebook messages that law enforcement obtained in their investigation.

“There was a message that was sent the evening before the incident where we located Abel deceased, and that message was at 11:34 p.m. on February 27th and the message reads from (Luke’s aunt that) the kids went to sleep hungry.”

The trial is expected to resume tomorrow at 9 a.m.