INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A Vero Beach man will spend the next three decades in prison for a 2021 aggravated manslaughter case where he refused to take his elderly, injured mother to the hospital, Circuit Court Judge Robert Meadows ruled on Thursday. Meadows issued the man – Brandon Blanchard – 62 days of credit time served.
“The defendant did nothing as his own mother succumbed to multiple injuries, the worst of which was a horrifically broken arm,” said Assistant State Attorney Bill Long who prosecuted the case. “This deliberate inaction caused her death, which is why the state asked for 30 years in prison. I’m glad judge Meadows saw it the same way, and I think it was a fair and just sentence.”
Meadows handed down the maximum sentencing for Blanchard Thursday afternoon at the Indian River County Courthouse. Blanchard, a Navy veteran, wore a red and white-striped jail uniform as he stood next to Assistant Public Defender Michelle Rhodeback in the well of the courtroom.
Blanchard took brief pauses as he spoke, attempting to catch his breath as he told the court what happened leading up to his mother’s death.
“I didn’t want my mother to catch COVID-19. Most people who passed from COVID were elderly,” Blanchard said to Meadows, explaining why he didn’t take the woman to the hospital. “I didn’t have control over the situation. I didn’t have the proper help. Please have mercy on me. Please have mercy on me. Please have mercy on me.”
The sentencing comes one month after a jury found Blanchard guilty of aggravated manslaughter of an elderly or disabled adult. Blanchard pled not guilty in the case.
Rhodeback called five witnesses, all men, who were acquaintances of Blanchard. The men, Nicholas Katsanis, Asif Hussain, Kashid Hussain, Ghulam Ali and Said Moobark, all described Blanchard as a good guy who was always positive.
The Hussains – who are brothers – along with Ali and Moobark said they often saw Blanchard with his mother at the mosques in Fort Pierce and Melbourne. Asif Hussain said Blanchard was loyal to his mother.
“She would kiss his hand and his face,” Asif Hussain said. “He wouldn’t want to hurt his mother.”
The men asked Meadows to have mercy on Blanchard.
Rhodeback argued that Blanchard was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was under duress at the time of his mother’s death. Blanchard, along with his then-wife Yannie Lund, were caregivers for Blanchard’s 76-year-old mother, Deanne Blanchard, while they lived in an apartment in the Vista Royale community.
Long said that Blanchard was competent to stand trial. Long said there was no evidence that Blanchard was under duress or domination of another person.
Long also said that Blanchard refusing to get his mother treatment was not an isolated incident.
“This was a pattern of conduct that led to his mother’s death,” Long said. “He hasn’t shown any remorse.”
Meadows agreed, saying that the injuries to Deanne Blanchard were “no accident.”
“These were torturous acts that went on for months, weeks, days,” Meadows said. “There were healing injuries on top of new injuries.”
Medical examiners previously said Deanne Blanchard died from a number of factors, including a broken right arm, a blood infection, infected bed sores and hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The woman’s death was ruled a homicide, reports show.
Indian River County deputies started investigating the case after paramedics brought Deanne Blanchard to the Vero Beach emergency room. “The injuries and sores were consistent with possible neglect,” a deputy said in an arrest report.
Blanchard said his mother fell off the toilet and broke her arm weeks before her death, deputies said.
“Blanchard acknowledged that a month prior, he saw bruising and swelling on his mother’s right arm, but refused to seek medical care for his mother,” reports show.
Blachard said Lund convinced and manipulated him not to take his mother to the hospital. Lund initially told deputies she had no knowledge of the woman’s injuries, but later admitted that her mother-in-law had bruising and swelling, reports show.
Lund, who was also charged in the aggravated manslaughter case, will be tried separately. Lund’s trial will start at 9 a.m. Sept. 30, court records show.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
