Pittsburgh parents charged with conspiring to delay medical care for gravely injured infant son

A Pittsburgh man charged with fatally abusing his infant son now faces allegations that he and the boy’s mother conspired to delay medical treatment because they feared child welfare officials.

Seth Williams and Aleah Ostruh waited more than 12 hours to take a gravely injured Micaiah Williams to the hospital, according to investigators.

Micaiah died four days later. He was 4 months old.

Williams, 29, was charged last year with criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of children and aggravated assault.

Ostruh, 24, who was at work when Micaiah was injured at the couple’s Bloomfield home, was charged with endangering the welfare of children and obstructing a child abuse investigation.

Now both are charged with conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children based on what police say are incriminating text messages they uncovered between the parents.

A detective testified about the messages during a preliminary hearing on the new charge Tuesday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, saying the couple appeared to agree not to take Micaiah to the hospital.

Judge Edward J. Borkowski held the conspiracy count and set a trial date for March 31.

Casting blame

Pittsburgh police were called to West Penn Hospital at 8:45 a.m. on Sept. 10, 2024, for a report of an infant with multiple traumatic head injuries.

Micaiah was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in grave condition.

Micaiah had four skull fractures, areas of dead brain tissue and herniation of the brain into the spinal cord, according to the criminal complaint against Williams.

There was also external bruising above his left eye and near his hairline, as well as fractures to both shoulders.

Ostruh told police she was at work that evening and had left Micaiah and the couple’s 4-year-old twins home with Williams.

She said Williams called her and said the twins had knocked over the baby’s bassinet, injuring him.

When she returned home around 8 p.m., Ostruh told police, the house was in disarray.

Williams’ father told police that his son called and asked him to take the twins that evening, and when he arrived at their home, there was broken glass on the floor and an interior door had holes in it and had been ripped off its hinges.

Williams told his father the twins had caused the damage, the criminal complaint said.

But one of the twins told the grandfather Williams was responsible and that he had punched one of the twins in their head and thrown the other one across the room.

Throughout the night, according to Ostruh’s criminal complaint, she texted repeatedly with her mother, updating her on Micaiah’s condition. She told her mother that she’d put ice on the baby’s head, but he was not eating.

“(Y)eah, he opens his eyes slightly here and there and sighs and moves his arms and still stretches so hopefully later in the morning, he’s more alert after he gets rest,” Ostruh wrote at 3:08 a.m.

Just after 8 a.m., Ostruh walked Micaiah to West Penn Hospital a few blocks away.

‘Targets on our back’

As part of the investigation into Micaiah’s death, Pittsburgh homicide detectives obtained search warrants to review the couple’s phones.

Det. Anthony Beatty spent more than an hour on the witness stand, recounting about 150 text messages Williams and Ostruh sent each other between the evening of Sept. 9 and the morning of Sept. 10, 2024.

The first message, sent at 6:03 p.m. by Williams to Ostruh, was “911 ASAP CALL ME!!”

At 7:48 p.m., Williams wrote: “He so tired he won’t wake up. I feel like they knocked him out … when they did what they did.”

As the evening progressed, the messages indicate the couple’s parents were urging them to take Micaiah to the hospital.

But at 10:29 p.m., Williams wrote to Ostruh, “We don’t want this on record.”

And she responded, “That’s what I’m saying.”

Williams continued: “we already got attacked about CYS” and “are they thinking straight.”

Ostruh replied “I guess not.”

“We already have targets on our back,” Williams said a couple minutes later. And then, “They will take him off you in that ER.”

“Exactly,” Ostruh responded.

Then, Beatty recounted, 21 times over the course of eight hours that night, Williams googled some variation of the phrase “baby head trauma” and “baby head trauma treatment.”

He also searched repeatedly for the phrase “baby head trauma treatment at home” beginning just after 6 a.m.

His last searches, Beatty said, were around 7:30 a.m., when Williams searched for “what are the red flags for head trauma in infants.”

‘Just bad decision making’

On cross-examination, Williams’ defense attorney asked Beatty what proof he’d presented showing a conspiracy between her client and Ostruh.

He reiterated Williams’ message: “‘We don’t need this on record.’

“That’s the two clearly saying ‘let’s not go to the hospital,” Beatty said. “They don’t want CYF (Children, Youth and Families) involved.”

Defense attorney Wendy Williams argued to the court that there was no evidence of an agreement or shared plan between her client and Ostruh to support a conspiracy count.

“It’s not just bad decision-making,” Williams said. “It has to be proof of a separate plan and acts in furtherance of that agreement.”

Patrick Thomassey, who represents Ostruh, agreed.

“Perhaps there was a delay, but she still did the right thing,” in taking the infant to the hospital, Thomassey said.

“I don’t think there’s any conspiracy whatsoever.”

Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer DiGiovanni said both parents knew Micaiah was severely injured and chose not to seek treatment. Instead, she said, they put ice on his head.

“This is a child who is extraordinarily sick,” DiGiovanni said. “They’re trying to treat this child at home. They absolutely agree to delay medical care.”

Seth Williams is being held in the Allegheny County Jail, while Ostruh remains free on bond.