Mom waves off girl's untreated diabetes until she dies, NY cops say. 'Being dramatic'

A New York woman is facing a murder charge after officials and news outlets report her 12-year-old daughter died due to untreated diabetes.

Ashley Bertino, 36, of Silver Creek, was recently taken in custody by deputies on a charge of second-degree murder, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office announced in a Nov. 8 news release. Bertino’s arrest comes more than six months after her daughter’s death in late April.

Evidence gathered by investigators showed Bertino had a “depraved indifference to human life, which created a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby caused the death of a 12-year-old juvenile victim,” the sheriff’s office said.

Assistant Public Defender Andrew Brautigam, who represented Bertino during a Nov. 14 court hearing, called the girl’s death a tragedy but said prosecutors did not show Bertino committed a crime, the Observer Today reported.

In the court hearing, witnesses painted a picture of neglect suffered by the girl, Mya Smith, and her brother and sister, all of whom attended school together, the Observer Today reported.

“She called me her bestie,” school bus driver Colleen Smith testified, the paper reported. Smith cried as she recalled how Mya would sit in the seat behind her on the way to school, and how she would often have bottles of water on hand to give to Mya as she was always so thirsty — sometimes drinking two full bottles during the ride.

Excessive thirst is a common sign of diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Leading up to Mya’s death, neighbor Jill Meyer told the court that Mya’s brother said he had been taking care of her, and he was worried she was going to die, the paper reported. When he tried to get their mother, Bertino, to call 911, she refused and said Mya “was being dramatic,” Meyer said.

Investigators determined that Mya died due to untreated diabetes, specifically diabetic ketoacidosis, which could have been avoided with treatment, WKBW reported. Her category of death was listed as “medical neglect.”

Diabetic ketoacidosis occurs when the body doesn’t have enough insulin, which it needs to break down sugars, experts say. If the body is unable to break down sugars for energy, the liver will instead begin to break down body fat instead of sugar, which causes the blood to become acidic, causing death if untreated.

Officials were in the process of determining what charges to bring against Bertino when they learned Mya’s siblings, who had been taken out of the home after Mya’s death, were going to be returned to Bertino soon, the station reported. This pushed officials to act quickly.

“We didn’t think that it was a smart idea to return these children to the same household in which Mya Smith had died, and therefore we took action on our side,” Jason Schmidt, Chautauqua County District Attorney, told the outlet.

Silver Creek is a roughly 30-mile drive southwest from Buffalo.

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